Ordinarily Extraordinary
by Pearl22
Summary: Cindy felt it'd take something big to change things between her and Jimmy. But letting Evil Jimmy on the loose and launching herself on a crazy space odyssey with Sheen,valiant knight in his hopeless quest for a Libby,wasn't quite what she'd planned.JC,SL
1. Prelude

**Ordinarily Extraordinary**

* * *

_A/N: Whoa, it's been a long time since I've been writing any fanfiction. But recently I got into JN again and I just had to write something starring my two favorite characters and two favorite pairings, if you read it or not, 'cause this idea is busting my skull. I'll recycle some of my old fanfic ideas in this story (which will definitly, no matter what, be completed) and well...I hope it isn't anything cringe-worthy. ;) _

Disclaimer:I don't own Jimmy Neutron or anything related to the show.

* * *

_Prelude_

_

* * *

_

Somewhere on a far away planet called Vorth there was a pretty wasteland. A _pretty_ wasteland, indeed, fluorescing peacefully in its bright shades of purple, green and a little bit of turquoise. It was covered in thick neon green fumes that wavered warily from place to place and floating rocks of emerald color, as if it had every right in the world to be so outrageously appealing. And if you asked any Vorthian inhabitant, such a pretty wasteland wasn't exactly anything out of the ordinary. It was fairly simple - they had tried the vast, void kind of wasteland all the other planets seemed to be so keen on, but had found, that it didn't quite agree with the Vorthian sense of aesthetics (and neither with the wardrobe of Vorthian femmes). So they had switched back – you didn't have to obey just any fashion, after all.

Thus, in theory, there was nothing special about this particular wasteland that lay stretched out right there, illuminated by the serene light of two crystal blue moons.

In reality, however, there were five flashy colored bubbles bouncing off its ground that interrupted the Vorthian idyll. By the looks of the buzzing multitude of laser beams following said intruders, it was safe to say that this was a very special event for Vorth, indeed.

"WHEEEEEE! I'm the Bubblin' Bouncin' Bubble Man! FEAR MY BUBBLING BUBBLES!" An ecstatic Sheen cried out, drumming his hands against the surface of his soapy 'vehicle', far too caught up in his rush of adrenalin to notice the whirring laser that almost hit him. "BUBBLES!"

"Sheen, watch out! If you're pounding too hard, chances are that your bubble will burst before we reach my rocket!" his friend Jimmy, exceedingly concerned about their- er, Sheen's- wellbeing, reprimanded him, but unfortunately the message was clearly lost on Sheen.

"DUDE, This is AWESOME! I feel my brain pouring out my ears! WHEE!"

Cindy threw a dirty look in his direction. "Wouldn't be the first time."

Four simultaneous gasps resounded, as Sheen kicked against the surface of his bubble, flipped over and started to steer his bubble on a seemingly random course, all the while laughing his head off at their fear-stricken faces.

"Jimmy, are we there yet?" Carl yelled over the noise of the lasers and Sheen's antics. "I think just from watching this, I'm gonna be…" His face turned into a surprisingly bright shade of green. "Sick."

Libby, who was controlling the bubble right next to his, snapped her eyes wide open.

"No way, Carl! Don't even think about barfin' on us here!" Disgust written all over her face, she threw herself against the insides of her purplish colored bubble to scoot away from Carl, but to her great misfortune, the gap between them didn't increase by much more than five inches. Suspicious noises rang from her left side and she shook her head in defeat.

" I shoulda just gone to the mall."

"Don't worry, Carl, we're almost there! We're already close enough to receive Goddard's signals, just hang on…" Jimmy looked up from his watch and stopped short in his steps, as he found the way to 'almost there' barred with what seemed outrageously similar to a giant Vorthian spaceship armada. Of exactly the same type as that lovely armada that had chased them until this point.

His voice dropped.

"Uh oh."

" COOL! MORE SPACE PEOPLE! LET'S KEEP 'EM!"

Sheen pumped his fist into the air, oblivious to the shadow that fell over his friends' faces, as well as to the mind blowing thundering sounds that set off as the ships started to open fire on them.

" I have a feeling, we're about to be toasted, guys!" Libby cried warily. Carl's head jerked around to her, utter panic shaking his voice.

"But my mom doesn't approve of me getting a tan!" He hiccupped. "At ALL!"

Unperturbed by their little chit chat, Jimmy pushed a good dozen of different buttons on his watch, calculating the risk of the risk of risking risking the risk of getting blown up by a spaceship armada in the middle of nowhere. The results weren't exactly encouraging, but, as leader of this expedition (and most likely the scapegoat if somebody would indeed be blown up), he felt it was his duty to pacify his friends.

"Guys! Don't worry, this is just a minor setback in a major…"

A third armada appeared on their left side, this time, though comfortably medium sized, apparently the best armed one. The ships didn't waste any time to fire away twice as forcefully as their neighboring armadas, after all.

"Uh oh."

"Nice going Nerdtron!" Cindy decided to enter the stage in a heartfelt attempt to raise their spirits. " _How_ do you CONSTANTLY manage…"

Unfortunately her well-thought out, frequently practiced speech of blame and failure was interrupted by the very misfortunate event of her bubble being hit by a salvo of laser beams. Immediately the vehicle spun out of her control, bouncing right into the way of the others' bubbles.

"Whoaaaaa!"

" Girl!" Libby cried out helplessly, watching her best friend slithering on collision course with a certain someone's bubble, a someone, who was currently snuggled very peacefully against the insides of his vehicle, arms crossed behind his neck, humming a cheery little tune.

It didn't take more than one panicky cry from Cindy to make him snap his eyes wide open and notice his predicament.

"ABUSIVE BLONDE AHEAD, ABUSIVE BLONDE AHEAD!" Sheen yelled out frantically, waving his hands so forcefully that he managed to bring his own bubble off course, too. Eyes wide open; both he and Cindy saw their figures approaching each other at a worrisome pace.

"SHEEN, CINDY WATCH OUT!"

The girl's head spun around to Jimmy, eyes ablaze, while she was doing a double flip inside her bubble.

"EASY FOR YOU TO SAYYYY-!"

A loud crash drowned her words as hers and Sheen's bubbles collided, sending both of them off in different directions. However, to the children's great horror they had to find that while Cindy managed to get her tumbling bubble back under control, Sheen's vehicle burst into thousands of pieces. Taken by the velocity of his bubble and the force of the collision, Sheen was sent flying in a horizontal position right through the line of lasers.

Libby reached out in shock. "Sheen!"

Breathlessly, all children leant against the right side of their bubbles to watch him land an approximate distance of 300 yards away from them and slide another couple of yards before he finally came to a halt, barely visible in the dense green fumes that radiated off the earth.

Groggily, he lifted one finger. "I'm ooookay!"

Promptly a floating rock hit him in the head and caused him to fall flat on his back.

Libby raised her eyebrow. "That was weird."

However, she couldn't help but feel relief washing over her on seeing that Sheen was unharmed by his little flight and on looking back at Cindy's and Jimmy's faces she found that feeling reciprocated.

Carl, on the other hand, was _slightly_ distracted by another, rather unnerving discovery.

"Hey… why are those creepy alien thingies closing in on our rocket?"

Jimmy nearly jumped as he twirled around to look into the direction his friend was pointing at.

" Pukin' Pluto, there are going to destroy it!" he observed and the others looked helplessly at each other. Hysterically Jimmy pushed another bunch of buttons on his watch." Goddard…Goddard! "His eyes widened fearfully." Oh no…his battery must have run out during the first attack… that means he's all defenseless! We gotta save him! When they manage to…"

A quite entertaining rapport on nearly every possibility to cause Goddard physical harm poured out his lips in a matter of seconds, all need for oxygen forgotten, and would've continued for quite a long time in this manner if not for the ever so easily aggravated Cindy Vortex, who cried incredulously:

"Earth to Neutron! I'm sorry to interrupt your concerns about your _blender_, but how are we supposed to get back home without the _rocket_?" A laser shot towards her, but this time, she avoided it with expert reflexes. "Nice try, you loser!"

Jimmy rubbed his temples. "Well, we…we've got to push through before they get there, somehow! Maybe if we split up and vary our pace, they'll get into a friendly fire and we can use the moment to break through their lines."

"Ya-a, or get shot dead in the progress." Cindy responded dryly. Carl's face paled at that thought.

Jimmy scoffed.

"Well, I don't see you coming up with _anything_, Vortex!"

She opened her mouth to berate him once more, reminding him that it was his stupid fault they were in this mess, anyway, but before she could shoot him down, she caught Libby's exasperated glare and for once in her lifetime decided to delay this delicious pleasure.

The boy genius certainly didn't mind.

"Now, c'mon, you guys!"

Carl raised hesitantly his index finger. "UHM, aren't you forgetting something, Jimmy?"

"What?"

Carl, Libby and Cindy pointed at their backs.

" Him."

In the distance Sheen was visible as he staggered towards the battleships, still caught in a daze, his legs almost tangling. Lasers buzzed around his head in dizzying speed.

"HOW'RE YA DOING; OL'ALIEN BUTTHEADS?" he howled and gave the Vorthian armada a thumbs-up. Another floating rock hit him in the head.

Jimmy gulped. "Uh oh."

"Well, we can't just leave him there!" Libby stated matter-of-factly, urging him to come up with a solution. "Chances are, he's gonna be fried!"

Cindy crossed her arms in annoyance. " Well, tough chance! We can't save him AND the rocket!"

There was a moment of silence as everyone turned around to glare at her. Even the lasers seemed to take a break for a split second.

"What?" she asked defensively. "Everyone was thinking it!"

Libby shook her head in disbelief. "Girl…"

"Well, Libby's right" Jimmy stepped in, cutting both girls off. "We have to go back to rescue him. The rocket must wait - and so do YOU, Vortex. I won't let Sheen behind!"

"Are you raving mad? We barely made it this far!" Cindy cried out, waving her hands for emphasis.

" Well, if you hadn't pushed Sheen out of his bubble in the first place…!"

" EXCUSE ME? I WAS SHOT, you imbecile!"

"Which NEVER would've happened if you-"

"Guys, cut it out! We got a situation RIGHT HERE!"

The squabblers shut their mouths, flicking apologetic glances in Libby's direction. She shook her head at both of them as a mother would do at a pair of very naughty little children- and sometimes she felt she could just as well be that mother. Sure enough Jimmy and Cindy lowered their heads in perfect synchronization under her glare, inspecting their shoes with sudden interest. Ever since that… incident last week involving a very scarring encounter with a diviner and a jellyfish, they weren't quite comfortable with ignoring Libby's chiding remarks anymore.

Carl used that blessed moment of silence to make an announcement.

"Jimmy, they're almost there!" He pulled out a hanky and sniffed. "I really don't want to live with crazy alien thingies for the rest of my life…"

Another salvo of lasers raced their direction and the conversation was immediately broken up. While they steered their bubbles around the shots, Jimmy's head rocked forth and back between Sheen and the rocket, his decision to go back slowly faltering. After all…If they rescued Sheen, the Vorthians would waste no time to blow up their only way to get back to Earth. Goddard, his oldest and most loyal companion would be lost forever. The thought was horrifying, unbearable even. But…he couldn't just leave his friend in the middle of the battle; the entire trip had been Jimmy's idea after all. How would- how could he live with the knowledge that _he_ was the one who sealed Sheen's doom? Not to mention that it would be highly immoral, cowardly and utterly devastating to turn his back on him like this. But if they stayed behind, it was most likely all of them whose gooses would be cooked. Then he wouldn't be responsible for the loss of just one, but four friends. This couldn't be the answer!

Jimmy frowned, calculated, weighed all options, his heartbeat racing as he realized that he didn't know what to do next.

'_That's what you get for playing the omniscient leader of the group, pushing others around as you please, little boy. Predicament after predicament, all for fun.'_ a nasty voice in the back of his mind whispered. '_But are you ready to assume full responsibility for your actions when you can't evade the consequences of your decisions?' _

His desperate thoughts were interrupted by his watch broadcasting a heartbreaking howl. _Goddard_!

"Guys…I..I…" he stuttered, but faltered quickly under the expectant gazes of his friends. He drooped, kicking himself up about his stupidity. If he didn't make a decision soon, then…

" Oh, for heaven's sake!" Cindy yelled out and threw her hands up in the air. Typically Neutron! You never got anything done unless you did it on your own when he was around. Scowling at him, she took a few steps back. Before any of her friends was able to decipher the meaning of her words, she threw herself against the inside of her bubble, pushing it slowly, but steadily in Sheen's direction.

"I'll get the freak, all right!"

Jimmy, Libby and Carl blinked. "What?"

Cindy kept stomping forward, crying over her shoulder: "Ya,ya, just get the rocket so we can leave this stinkin' place! " Her voice faded, as she disappeared into the green fog.

The remaining three children were frozen on their spots, a bewildered glance tossed back and forth. However, it didn't take much more than a laser almost hitting Libby's head to shake her out of her amazement.

"Well…"she started. "You heard the girl-now get a move on before my hair's frizzing!"

" I think I'm allergic to that." Carl spoke up, his voice still a bit shaky as he recovered from his initial shock about CINDY showing something resembling _humanity_.

Libby rolled her eyes." No, Carl, you just needa get live." She ignored the outraged sniff she got in reply and contented herself with avoiding another laser beam.

At last Jimmy came to his senses. Slipping back into his familiar role as the leader of their group, he told them:

"…right. That's that. Now, c'mon guys, we still got a chance to beat these guys to the rocket. Let's bounce!"

Without further ado they set off, throwing themselves forward to increase their speed.

"We split up by three."

* * *

Meanwhile, Sheen found himself caught in the middle of approximately a dozen of smaller vessels, steadily closing in on him. Behind their windshields he caught a glimpse at the Vorthian soldiers inside, their skin bright turquoise, but their bodies of an awfully similar consistence as the Yokians' slimy selves. Kicking into his Ultra-fighting mode, he jumped up to his feet and teased them by threatening them with their fists, much like he'd seen super-heroes do on TV.

"You want a piece of me? "he growled at them. "Prepare to be crushed by my mighty crushing fist of ultra justice, alien scum!"

A third space rocket smacked his face, ruining effectively the impact of his speech. Strange, gurgling noises rang from the aliens in the cockpit – chuckles, he supposed.

His eyes narrowed.

"So that's how you wanna play, huh?"

Without warning he leapt forward, cried manically and ran straight into the lines of the vessels, head first. "PREPARE TO FAAAALLL…!"

It was that memorable moment that Cindy decided to arrive with her bubble.

"What the heck are you _doing_?" She cried out at the sight of Sheen's idiotic stunt and shattered her travelling bubble with a swift movement, jumping in front of him, right before he would've crashed into the first vessel. He tripped over her and fell with a loud shriek. The aliens started to shake with laughter.

"The pain" yelped Sheen. "THE PAIN!"

Exasperated, Cindy shoved him off her body- in a not-so-kind manner. Then she turned to glare at the Vorthian pilotes. " And just what are _you_ laughing at, uglies?"

Acting on impulse, rather than making any plans, she jumped on top of the nearest vessel and as she spotted the output of thick wires sticking out of the backside, she began to tear out every wire she could get a hold of, not letting go of any of them. The pilotes of the neighboring vessels yelled at her in their strange tongue, but since neither of them wanted to shoot their comrade, there was only mild fire – a couple of shots that Cindy avoided with ease. After a few seconds of fumbling and tearing, she jumped onto the next vessel, repeating the process. Sheen realized that she was most definitely up to something, and whipped around to the aliens with newfound confidence.

" YOU SEE THAT, ALIEN SLIME? That's what Earth is cookin', I tell's ya! You better go home to your cry-baby homes now, and do your cry-baby stuff, cause _**I'm**_ savin' the DAY!" He chuckled at his own joke. " Cry-baby."

The Vorthians continued to ramble, waving their slimy fists at him. Due to reasons never to be found out, the gesture put an idea into his head – as idiotic, as senseless as ever. But who cared, right?

Sheen threw himself into a heroic pose, reached into his pockets, drew out a pen, leapt forward -and scribbled onto the windshield of the first vessel he found.

" SHEEN WAS HERE. All right!"

Cindy looked down on him in annoyance, holding the wires like strings of a marionette over her head.

"Would you please shut up? I'm working over here, you know?"

Her eyes nearly bulged out as she watched him fire aimlessly around with a laser gun that DEFINITELY hadn't been in his hands a few seconds ago.

"Say what? " Sheen asked lazily, before bursting into laughter when a vessel began to shoot randomly though the air as he hit it with his gunshots. "FEAR MY UNCONTROLLABLE RUSH OF UNCONTROLLABLE ADRENALINE! OH YEAH, BABY!"

Cindy was stunned. "Where the hell did you get that?"

"The adrenaline rush? Well, I'm high on sugar and when the-"

"THE GUN, YOU IDIOT? " She ripped out another wire, glaring murderously at him.

Sheen exaggeratedly rubbed his ear. "Well _that_ voice is annoying."

Cindy didn't have time to ask again, thanks to a laser being shot into her direction in that very moment. By a hair's breadth she managed to dodge it, but failed to hold her balance and slipped down the vessel, face first into the thick fog. With all her might she kept clinging to the downside of the vessel. She cursed under her breath and worked her way up again, sweat running down her forehead.

The things she did to rescue that idiotic, braindead, drooling-

"Hee,hee …sorry, Cruella!"

Incredulously she stopped her climbing.

"Did _you_ just shoot me?"

Sheen looked warily around." Uh…LOOK it's the Vorthian Thunderfly!" He tossed the gun discretely a few yards away.

Cindy groaned to herself. "Oh, why do I even bother?"

A good deal of lasers, mishaps and yelling at a certain _somebody down there _later_,_ she finally held all wires in her hand. They were quite heavy for her to handle all alone, but she ignored the stinging pain in her hands and proceeded to knot them together. Looking back at the ground beneath her current vessel, she measured her height and the approximate weight she would need to conduct her little trick. A frown appeared on her forehead.

_Oh great._

Grudgingly, she squatted and reached out for Sheen with her left hand.

"Sheen, quick! I need you to take my hand!"

Sheen dodged just another laser beam, flicking a bit of dirt off his nail. "Well, Cindy, you know I'm down with the whole 'getting along' thing, but I really think you and me are better off staying _just _friends…"

With a growl, Cindy yanked him up to her. "_JUST_ GET YOUR BUTT UP HERE, you moron!"

She paid no mind to his protests, glancing down at the vessels beneath that were trying to break free from the hold she had on them (courtesy to the monster knot). Several desperate shots passed them by very closely. Sheen cringed.

" Er, I don't wanna pressure you, but what's the plan, chief?"

Cindy bit her lip. "Well…I didn't really plan that far ahead, but…"

"YOU GONNA DO A ROUNDHOUSE KICK and send them over the edge! It'll be cool!"

She blinked at him. "What?"

"Eh, sorry." Sheen chuckled."Wrong fandom. Carry on."

"We really don't have time for you nonsense, ya dweeb!" Cindy hissed at him and he cowered. "Now, I don't know if this will work, but we have no choice anyway since Neutron got us stuck in this stupid mess and **I** have to fix things for him as usual, because apparently that hideously huge head of his …Are you listening to me?

Sheen's eyes snapped open. "Huh? What? Grandmother, what a great mouth you have!"

"Okay, that's IT!" Cindy snapped, determination edging into her face. Wordlessly, she tightened her grip on Sheen's arm, counted down to three and then, all of a sudden, jumped down, forcing him with her towards the ground. The powerful tug pulled the light weighted, versatile vessels together with a sudden force- and accompanied by a deafening noise- they crashed into each other. Sparks flew through the thinning fog, fires broke out, shards cut through the air- and then the bodies of two children disappeared in the chaotic pandemonium of a medium-sized explosion.

* * *

On the other side of the wasteland, hidden behind the enemy's own lines, Jimmy, Carl and Libby were hastily scurrying around the rocket, trying to start it up. Their little maneuvers had indeed proven to be successful , but they knew it was only a matter of time until the friendly fire would stop and the fog would thin out. If they weren't gone by then, there would be lots of space toast.  
And as Carl always liked to point out, they were allergic to space toast.

As Jimmy was handling the controls with shaky hands, Libby started abruptly at the sound of an explosion.

" Guys, did you hear that?"

"Well, it WASN'T ME!"

Jimmy and Libby scowled at their red-haired friend.

"No, Carl…" Jimmy tried to keep his voice even. " I think she's talking about the explosion RIGHT THERE!"

" Owww, you don't have to scream about it!" Carl complained, rubbing his ear." You know, you spend too much time 'round Cindy."

"I most certainly do n-"

"CINDY!" Libby cried out, stepping in between of them. "Wasn't that the exact spot where Sheen got lost?

The color quickly drained out of Jimmy's face as he realized the meaning behind her question. " I…I think you're right,Libby." he stated quietly.

Carl's eyes widened. " But if they were there when the boom boom things went on…" His voice went an octave higher and then instantly stopped short.

Libby stared blankly at the two boys, her mouth never closing as the three of them tried to wrap their heads around the horrifying implications of those few observations. A deadweight crushed on their shoulders, the threat of the nearby Vorthian armada temporarily forgotten.

After what seemed like an eternity, but wasn't much more than a minute, Jimmy's lips parted slightly, as he thought of something to say…but failing to do so, his entire mind paralyzed at the thought of having lost his two friends in that explosion that looked so tiny from this distance.

_Sheen…Cindy…_

Suddenly, however, a small yelp from Libby shook him out of his palsy and following her gaze, he made out two distant figures huddling away from the explosion's centre, one of them dragging the other one by the ear. Both were gesturing wildly, as though engaged in a heated verbal sparring.

"Is that…" Libby breathed, barely believing her eyes.

"Guys! " Jimmy affirmed her perception. "They made it! They MADE it!" *

Without even realizing it, the three of them engaged in a crushing hug, laughing almost hysterically in mind blowing relief. Their joy, however, didn't last long, as Carl suddenly tugged Jimmy's arm.

"Uh…Jim, I don't want to spoil the atmosphere, but…but…" His voice quivered. "ALIEN ARMADA AHEAD!"

Jimmy twirled around. "What?"

Sure enough more than a dozen battle ships lined up on the horizon, pushing with lethal precision through the fog in their direction, followed closely by a couple of smaller vessels that were racing close to the ground, approaching Cindy and Sheen at a worrisome rate.

"We've got to get out of here at once." Jimmy stated matter-off-factly.

Libby grabbed his shoulders, unable to contain her hysteria any longer.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Fire this thing up and get Cindy and Sheen on board, genius!"

He shook her off with his elbow and hopped inside the rocket, immediately taking over the controls. With an impatient nod he signalized them to get inside and once they had obeyed his commend, he turned his view back to the giant armada, brows furrowed together in anxiety.

"Starting on five…four…"

* * *

Meanwhile, Sheen interrupted his repeated cries for mercy (the cause for said cries currently abusing his left ear) as he noticed the group of small vessels hovering over them, weapons all stashed out and most likely ready to shoot any second.

As if he hadn't seen THAT one before.

" Uh, Cindy?" he probed carefully as she was catching breath to continue her tirade." I do appreciate the name calling and physical abuse, but, say, doesn't that feel like a major déjà vu to you?"

Cindy felt her heart sinking at the sight of the vessels as she followed his gaze. There were more of them? After they'd barely managed to overcome the last dozen without losing any vitally important organs?

"I don't believe it! Where do these goofy things keep popping out?" she cried helplessly, kicking the ground. Hard.

At her side, Sheen narrowed his eyes. "HEY! They're descending from their ships! Maybe they want to call in the uber-treacherous truce of Padomnia like the Chirrers did in Ultra Lord episode 23, when they ended their war with the Hobnoxs by sealing the uber-treacherous truce in Ultra Lords backyard!" He grinned euphorically." We're the Hobnoxs!

Cindy glanced at him, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Uber-treacherous, huh? So what happened?"

" The Hobnoxs got shot and it was COOL!" Sheen beamed.

She was about to reply, that NO, if they were the Hobnox (what kind of name was that anyway?) it was definitely NOT cool to get shot in the process of some silly uber-treacherous truce, but before she could open her mouth, she noticed the first aliens running towards them. Kicking into defensive-mode (an ability she'd perfected in the years of practicing martial arts – and in the years of cleaning up after Neutron's messes) she took in all escape opportunities, found the chances very slim and, with a heavy heart, braced herself for the fight. It came always down to that, didn't it? God, how dearly she wished to hate that kid.

Sheen jumped when he realized she'd let go of his ear.

" FREEDOM! SWEET FREE-

A laser beam shot past his head.

With a swift motion, he jumped behind Cindy for cover.

" -dom."

* * *

"Jimmy, can't you go a LITTLE FASTER! Cindy looks as though she's about to throw herself at these freaky aliens! All alone!" Libby cried from the backseat of the rocket, giving the guys regular updates on their friends' increasingly hopeless situation. She had long since dug her finger nails deeply into the fabric of her seat, following every single move of Cindy's or Sheen's. Unable to take the suspense any longer, Carl hopped next to her.

" Yeah…and Sheen looks like he's about to …"He paused, trying to express what he saw in accuracy."…he looks like Sheen, only… scared. Which is kinda creepy, if you think about it."

"Tell me about it."

"Definitely."

"Yeah."

"Totally."

Jimmy rolled his eyes at their running commentary as it didn't exactly help him to keep his cool. As if it wasn't enough to steer a rocket around an alien armada without worrying himself sick over Sheen and Cindy!

"Well, guys, I'm trying, but our not-so-gently landing here damaged our engines…Now if I would only have…

Libby cut him off, bluntly and painlessly. "Two words, genius boy: MOVE IT!"

"Okay, okay! Firing it up…" His gaze found his two friends in distress and he froze. What… the… heck?

"What in Edison's name is she _doing_?" he cried out, half amazed, half furious.

* * *

"Well, I don't wanna be nitpicky, but you had better plans." Sheen stated dryly, as he looked down on the aliens who were swarming around the vessel that they had settled on top of. "Like the one with the explosion! I liked that!" A laser hit a spot in front of his feet- perhaps for the hundredth time ever since his bubble had burst. "I really don't like this." he finished quietly.

Cindy huffed at him, her eyebrows drawn together in deep concentration, but her voice running full on anger as always. It wasn't as though this was _her_ idea of the ideal vacation, after all.

"Well, maybe if you'd shut up for once, I could explain to you...! Watch out!" She grabbed his collar and jerked his head down.

Sheen tumbled on his spot. " I'm…feeling…fuzzy…." She slapped him across the face and his head popped up. "Okay. I'm a-LIVE!"

" Alright then…" ignoring his statement, Cindy braced herself. "Let's dance." She waved at the aliens, to which they –ever so creatively- responded by opening fire. Avoiding the shots, she almost missed the sympathetic look that crossed Sheen's face.

" You know, when I said: 'let's just be friends', I truly did mean that, Cindy."

" Urgh!" There was no time left to set him right about his misconception. She dodged another laser, rolled on her left side and jumped on top of a vessel to her right, continuing to provoke the Vorthians. Sheen's eyes grew to the doubled size as he watched her perform her little one-girl-show.

"Hey, how'd ya do that?"

Cindy shook her head; cheeks flushed bright red from the exertion. "Less talking, more jumping, Ultradork!"

"But I-" Just another shot was about to hit him in the chest. Sheen shrieked. "Okay, okay, I'm jumping alright!"

Sparks flew, when the first laser hit a vessel so hard that it exploded on the spot.

* * *

"They're trying to turn the Vorthians against each other, aren't they?" Jimmy asked quietly, before his face morphed into an expression of hot anger. "Have they completely lost their minds? Their bubbles are both destroyed! They were lucky to survive the first explosion! Those are _real_ weapons!"

Libby watched Cindy hop and back, from vessel to vessel, kicking an alien out of the way whenever she got the chance. "I'd say."

"I am getting nauseous with all those bright lights flashing!" Carl muttered at her side. "Plus I really don't like my friends getting toasted."

All three of them gasped, when Sheen almost didn't jump off a vessel in time.

"That was a close! " Libby cried, clinging to Jimmy's shoulder with a death grip. His obvious uselessness in her friends' predicament was starting to grate seriously on her nerves. " So help'em already, Jimmy!"

He turned around to her, concern edged into his features, although his voice was dripping with annoyance. "Well, I _would_, but if we race down there, the main armada is going to notice our approach! And if they start firing, Sheen and Cindy will be fried before we even get there!"

"So you just want to wait here, until they might make it out of that?" Libby asked disbelievingly and pointed back at the chaotic battle beneath them.

Jimmy nodded solemnly. "Right now, I think we have no other choice, guys."

* * *

"There was a Vorthian Thunderfly and Bingo was his NAME-O , B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-" Sheen sang (terribly off-key as always) as he jumped merrily from top to top, sometimes blowing raspberries at the foolish aliens down below, who weren't even clever enough to take out two elementary school students.

Cindy kicked another two aliens out of her way, before clinging to her next vessel." I thought it was a Martian named Ringo?"

Sheen rolled his eyes. "Hey, I'm a flexible guy!"

Both started to jump on the last vessel left, but, by force of bad luck, crashed into each other and fell off at opposite sides.

" WHY DO THE GOOD ALWAYS CRASH?" cried Sheen dramatically, hectically reaching for something to hold on to. In vain, as he found himself face to face with the beautiful Vorthian earth quicker than expected.

Above their heads, the vessel got hit by a nasty salvo and exploded. It didn't take them too long to realize, that, hadn't they crashed into each other, they would be flying through the air just like the burning metal that was raining down at their sides in that very moment.

All grief instantly forgotten, Sheen perked up, pumping his fist into the air. "ALL RIGHT!"

At his side, Cindy gave a surprised yelp.

"What was that?" She asked and clutched her left leg, a bit of blood staining her finger. Apparently one of the smaller shards had cut her calf when she'd hit the ground. It was luckily nothing but a shallow wound, but it burned nonetheless quite painfully. Her expression darkened as she saw more blood trickling.

"Oh come on, now."

However, there wasn't much time for her to take care of her calf, as Sheen, eye twitching, poked Cindy's shoulder to draw her attention to something infinitely more worrisome and definitely more lethal.

"Do you see what I'm seeing?"

To their utter surprise (and utter horror) the bodies of the aliens they had struck down (or rather, who had struck each other down) began to slide rapidly over the ground, piled up as if put together by an invisible force and built slowly, but surely one huge slime alien. A deep roar echoed through the Vorthian night.

"That looks almost like an advanced form of this loopy twonkie specimen that Neutron brought with him one day!" Cindy observed; genuine amazement audible in her voice."These aliens here …they must be related or something. "

Sheen nodded, putting on a pair of glasses that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

" Hmm, fascinating, fascinating indeed… "

The monster tensed its muscles and lunged towards them. Instantly, Sheen yanked the glasses off. "BUT I'D REALLY RATHER GET OUTTA HERE!"

At a loss of words, Cindy crammed her brain for something, anything, to allow them to escape being torn into shreds by this hunky Twonkie-brother. As her gaze touched the destroyed vessels, a light bulb went off in her head and she started racing with all her might towards the wreckages, hectically (or rather hysterically) tearing off a larger piece of metal, a few wires and some engines. Satisfied with her loot, she then rummaged through her pockets and pulled out a miniature jet-pack engine.

"Hey, isn't that Jimmy's…."

Cindy grabbed Sheen's shirt and yanked him onto the metal scrap. "You never saw that, Ultra Dork." she hissed and he shrunk on his spot.

"Yes, ma'am."

Quite aware that it wasn't much more than a mere few yards until the monster would reach them, Cindy fired the engines up, biting her lip, hoping, praying that her provisory installation would do its job. Relief washed over her as she felt the familiar tug a few seconds later and the two of them started to race right through the monster's legs, shortly before its fists would've crushed them.

"Take that, you amateurs!" she couldn't help shouting in triumph. At her side, Sheen blew the monster a raspberry.

"Ya-hahaha! Team Earth: 1, Team…uh…YOU:ZERO! HAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Cindy felt inclined to stop the obnoxious laughter, but as luck would have it, a rock, larger than the previous ones, hit him just then and effectively shut him up. At least for a second.

"Dang why does that keep happening to -"Cindy cut him off, pointing excitedly ahead of them.

"Hey, isn't that Jimmy's rocket over there?"

Sheen narrowed his eyes to take a closer look at the small shadow closing in on them, before leaping to his feet with relief. "YES! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! They're coming to resc-" he stopped short.

"Did you just call him _Jimmy_?"

Cindy chuckled nervously: "-he,he"

The sound of a very familiar (and very welcomed) voice saved her from awkwardness and embarrassment, effectively interrupting Sheen's wondering gaze.

"GUYS! Come on, get on board quick!"

"Libby!" they both cried happily, allowing their relieved friend to heave them inside the rocket that was floating above their heads. As soon as they set foot inside, Libby slammed into them and crushed them in a deadly tight hug, cutting of every function of their lungs until they had to cry and beg for oxygen. At their side, Carl clapped excitedly.

Jimmy's voice sounded from the piloting seat. "Are they safe?"

Libby nodded. "Ya, I got it covered, don't worry. Now pull some levers and get us outta here, Jimmy!"

Without further ado, he obeyed her command.

"Leaving planet Vorth -" Goddard counted down for him. " NOW."

They disappeared with a bright flash into deep space, just before the first shot from the giant armada would've hit them.

* * *

A few minutes later, all pulses slowly calming down, the rocket drifted peacefully through space on its own accord as Jimmy had switched the autopilot on. With a shake of his head, he turned on his chair to see Sheen entertain everyone with an in-depth description of his 'AWESOMELY AMAZING' adventure with Cindy, complete with quotes and reenacting of crucial parts.

Jimmy had very mixed feelings about this episode. On one hand he had to admit, albeit grudgingly, that it had been pretty-almost-sort of impressive how quickly the two of them had managed to save their necks in the light of a giant alien armada shooting with full force at them. On the other hand, the extreme irresponsibility of their maneuver –and the main fault was definitely on Cindy's side who'd obviously been the mastermind behind their actions-was much too overwhelming to take easily as he recapped the events of the last hour.

" So I'm jumping on the next vessel, right, right, when Cindy _kicks_ that nasty alien off its feet karate style, and it bursts into a huuuuge puddle of slime right in front of my eyes!" Sheen mimicked Cindy's motion, jumping onto his seat. "It was AWESOME!"

" I'm just glad I wasn't there…jumping makes me noisy." Carl said quietly.

"Well, it was actually pretty cool." admitted Cindy with a smile, allowing herself, for once, to actually agree with something that came out the deranged one's mouth. After all, she'd pretty much saved their day and she couldn't help rubbing it into Neutron's face, Neutron, who was silently brooding on his chair, his gaze darkening with every word that was spoken. Libby shook her head at her.

" Are ya outta your mind? It was more than cool! You made some ravin' smokin' moves, out there, girlfriend."

Carl nodded, his fear of jumping already forgotten. " Yeah, you guys were pretty _amazing_."

On seeing Cindy's triumphant grin, Jimmy couldn't contain himself any longer. _They were congratulating her for nearly getting herself and Sheen killed?_

"Ya, more like amazingly asinine!" he cut off Carl's praise. "That was yet the stupidest thing I've _ever_ seen you perform, Vortex!"

Cindy was clearly taken off guard by this most undeserved comment."What?" she cried and rose from her seat. Jimmy met her outraged gaze with equal fervor.

"That stunt of yours could have easily backfired, costing you and Sheen your _lives_!"

"Well, it didn't, did it?" The memory of the anxiety she'd felt when the second troop of vessels had turned up rushed back into her thoughts, the thrill, the danger, the lasers. How quickly she had had to think on her feet to avoid ending up stuffed above some Vorthian's fireplace, how mentally challenging it had been to get Sheen to act in a not non- self-destructive way. In the light of THAT, the unfairness of his accusations almost squished the air out of her lungs. Why did it always end this way, when she had to bail them out of the messes _he_ got them into? He never, _ever_ appreciated any of her efforts!

"Why can't you admit, just for once, that I…"

" And to think that if you'd just kept your course in that bubble, none of this would've happened and we would've had a chance to complete our mission. Nice going, _Vortex_."

"Uh guys…" Sheen spoke up weakly from behind.

"Y-you _ungrateful_ -"

"GUYS, I think I know what hit me back there!" Sheen repeated, this time loud enough to draw Jimmy's attention to him. In his hands he held a glowing green jewel that sparkled brightly when a ray of light fell on its surface. Jimmy, completely forgetting about his rant, leapt forward, pretty much flipping out at the sight of the stone.

"SHEEN! You found it! You found it! The energy source we came to find! This…this is AMAZING!" excitedly he jumped into the air, yanking the jewel away from his friend's grasp.

"Er… I guess."

"No, no, no, I'm serious! Sheen, you're a genius!" Jimmy beamed, slapping Sheen's shoulder comradely. "Really, _really_ good job, my friend! " He indulged into a abstruse speech, congratulating his friend over and over again all the while analyzing the object in his hands with blissfully sparkling eyes.

Cindy gaped at the scene, dumbfounded by this sudden twist. After all…she got yelled at for taking out more than two dozen of bloodthirsty aliens, while Ultra Freak got praised for getting hit in the head?

"What? But he didn't even-"she started helplessly, but had to find that nobody paid attention to her anymore. Carl and Libby were patting Sheen's shoulder, Sheen was looking at them with a mixture of confusion, amazement and pride and Neutron…_Neutron_…

"Well, after Sheen saved our day like THAT, I'd say, it's _really_ time to get home as quickly as possible to celebrate this for _all_ it's worth!

…Neutron was just being himself. An ungrateful jerk.

Cindy hugged her knees to her chest, glaring at the happy 'let's celebrate the great hero Sheen' party with all the contempt she could muster up.

"Fine. Don't thank me for saving your freaking best friend's _life, _for all I care." she muttered sullenly and rubbed her left leg which was still smarting because of the shard that had cut her when she had made the last Vorthian vessel explode into thin air.

* * *

.

_A/N: Well...yeah. That's it for the prelude. Doesn't tell much yet, but if I had added the first chapter already, it would've become to long. Just setting up the characters a bit. Gosh, I hope they're in character! I apologize for any grammatical/spelling errors, you know the drill, English is not my native language, but hey, I love to write nonetheless. I'd really need a beta, but sadly they don't grow on trees. I checked. If there's anything completely incomprehensible, please do tell me. If anyone reads this at all. Which I doubt, cause JN fandom seems to die down a lil' bit. However, in case somebody DOES read it, tell me what you think :) Cause...you know. It's polite :P.  
_

_-And for the record: I don't think Jimmy's a jerk, Cindy does. But that's okay, we love her anyway. ;)  
_


	2. A Fortune Teller and a Mollusk

_Chapter One - _A Fortune Teller and a Mollusk_  
_

* * *

_A/N: Fast update, alright. Thanks a lot for the review :) and for every hit, I appreciate everything I can get. Ya, that sounds desperate ;). So let's get the story rolling..._

Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron or anything related to the show.

* * *

_-6 years later-_

It was a bad day to be a student at Lindbergh High. This a couple of ten graders decided, as they leaned with their backs flat against their lockers and cautiously watched the infamous 17-year-old bundle of rage pass them by. In the two years they had graced the local high school with their presence they had had plenty of time to come up with the best strategy to avoid attracting said subjects attention should the ever so horrifying circumstance of meeting her in the hallway occur – a goal they'd already aimed at in middle school but had only achieved this year. It was due to this strategy-and most definitely not her mercy- that they found themselves pretty much unharmed and inclined to heave relieved sighs when she turned at the corner. Much unlike the very pitiable ninth graders who, lying on the floor and clutching various body parts in pain, were proof that it took longer than one would think to grow accustomed to the endless headache that was an infuriated Cynthia Vortex.

"Okay…so one time, I can forgive." Her deeply aggravated voice echoed through the adjacent hallway, causing a couple fellow eleven graders, who'd been unlucky enough to miss the sounds of her approaching footsteps to jump. The blonde didn't even waste one glance on them – or, God forbid, an apology for raising their precautionary cardiologist's bill once more.

"Two times, hmm, sure, let's see past that!"

A rather daring pair of girls exchanged meaningful looks, but turned away just as everybody else did as she stormed past them.

She was…the _rage_.

Everybody knew that.

Well…sometimes at least. After all it wasn't that Cindy hadn't mellowed out a little since elementary school when her bad temper had become sort of legendary for the first time –she had. It had been a long and insufferable process, especially in those middle school years, when puberty hit home with every teenager, granted, but eventually she had grown somewhat of what one would call 'mature'.

And yet-

"But THREE times…"

…yet she had simultaneously mastered the questionable art of striking fear into the hearts of those who happened to get into her way. No longer a bratty tomboy stashing away an entire princess Barbie doll catalogue at home ,who played herself up in front of class just for the sake of it and gained her peers' admiration with ease by simple bragging, she now was rather respected as a driven, under circumstances dangerous individual, than truly popular in the common sense of the word. Peoples' priorities had shifted over the years and unfortunately for her social standing, Cindy hadn't grown – although not plain- into the most beautiful girl around. Or outrageously curvy, for that matter. She was pretty, as she'd always been, but not exaggeratedly so. In the light of those busty beach girl teens who strolled down the hallway many a day or the porcelain doll type beauty of the likes of Betty Quinlan, that wasn't exactly a quality that made you stand out in the crowd- or at least in the eyes of those who made social ranking. Her wardrobe hadn't developed that 'come-hither' appeal that was appreciated in other girls of her age either – most of the time it consisted of a green striped tank top and her beloved beige pants. It wasn't that she didn't like to shop with Libby till there was nothing left to shop – oh heck she did- or that she was hesitant to 'show off her femininity' as one might put it– but, as, to her deepest regret, past experiences had shown, skimpy wasn't the look to wear when you had to fight impending world doom on every corner. It didn't work.

Not that the guys cared, of course.

Add to that her oftentimes inapproachable air, her widely known ambition that never allowed her to accept coming in second in anything and the fact that she'd mostly been seen associating (no matter how begrudgingly) with the greatest nerds Retroville had to offer over Lindbergh High's finest- and it became pretty obvious why Cindy Vortex wasn't considered very popular, but powerful.

Usually nobody really cared. It was one of those things that just 'were' without anybody really noticing the pattern behind it.

But if the actions of a special someone were thrown into the mix, that 'powerful 'morphed to 'right on dangerous'- if said actions had been as disastrous as they'd been in the recent past. And that was when everybody started to care.

"…Three times…" Cindy seethed and opened the door to her chemistry class with one precisely – and forcefully- executed karate kick. "…just REALLY takes the cake."

The class stared at her.

She stared back. Infinitively more intensely.

"Here we go-o…" Brittany nudged her neighbor in a hushed voice, but shut up immediately when she met the withering glare that was sent her way. The others, who knew better than that, remained silent as Cindy stomped up to her seat, all of them secretly wondering if the rumors had been true, indeed- and fearing the possibility that they were. Not even Sheen and Carl, who referred to themselves as Cindy's 'closest acquaintances' whenever a bulky bully intended to beat them up, stirred the tension with a crude remark – but that was rather due to Carl's mystery meat sandwich that they inspected with genuine fascination than suddenly grown tact.

The minutes passed and when her classmates found that Cindy contented herself to stare at Libby's empty chair, they cautiously dared to reopen their conversations that had to be toned down when she entered the room.

'_Where the hell is she?'_ Cindy thought miserably to herself, glaring yet another hole into her best friend's chair. Of all the times for Libby to arrive late she just had to choose _this_ one. Cindy supposed it was Murphy's Law taking its toll on her.

Thanks a lot, Murphy.

"Sorry, sorry, Mister P.!" a sassy voice interrupted the sound of the chiming bell, just as Cindy was ready to get up and find Libby on her own. And if she had had to waltz up into every music store in this town. She had a complaint and she needed damn well someone to listen to said complaint. _Someone_ had ruined her perfect attendance record a long time ago, anyways.

Libby flashed their teacher an apologetic smile, who just waved her words off with a nonchalant gesture in return, then proceeded to sit down next to Cindy, face flushed and earrings clanking as they entangled with her dark braids.

"Girl…" she began to ramble under her breath, while she put her books on the table." You won't _believe_ my mornin' today! You remember that girl with that guy with that car in that place, don't you? So there I was, thinkin', hey, why don't I-"

Libby caught the murderous expression on her best friend's face as soon as she stopped rummaging in her bag and stopped short in her report of the morning's events, no matter how engaging and frustrating it'd been. The reason was quite simple. She'd seen that face before. _Twice_. Her shoulders slumped.

"Oh no, Cind, he didn't." she asked, voice dropping.

Cindy nodded curtly and tried to play it off professionally, but Libby clearly wasn't fooled. "Yep."

"And he didn't….?"

The blonde chuckled humorlessly. "Nope."

"So you…?" Libby tried again, in a last attempt to prove her suspicions wrong.

"Uhuh."

Suspicions confirmed. Oh, the joys of being right, she thought sardonically, but the sympathy on Cindy's behalf domineered her thoughts. Why did she constantly let herself be landed in those messes? Outraged- and with every right to be so- Libby threw her hands up into the air.

"I don't believe that guy!" she exclaimed disbelievingly, quite unperturbed by Mr.P.'s reprimanding look in her direction. This was an emergency situation. What did he know?

"Neither do I!" agreed Cindy fervently with her cry, then turned back to glare at anything in reach, when the first necks craned around and curious glances passed their way. She'd gotten pretty good at that – making others believe she glared at them even if her gaze was focused on something else. It was one of her many endearing personality traits that made her such an easy individual to get along with, she supposed. Then she grimaced. Whatever. She didn't really plan on being polite to anyone save Libby for today, anyways.

In the row behind them, Sheen, who'd overheard their exchange, bent over to Carl's desk. For Sheen, the sandwich had lost its appeal pretty quickly after Libby had walked in, for Carl, when he had to discover that whatever they'd taken for meat – wasn't. Listening in on other's conversations would do just as well as entertainment.

Well, provided that you understood them.

"You know, I think I missed something in the middle part." Sheen stated, casting an awkward look at his girlfriend and her best friend. It wasn't that he didn't consider himself the saw-it-all-knows-it-all when it came to the female species (but then again which teenage male at 17 didn't?), but when they started to open their precious little mouths and let words pour out, that was when he got confused.

Carl, who was just as equally challenged when it came to the (to him aesthetically more pleasing) half of the world's population, nodded. "And the beginning."

He paused, reconsidering it all."And… the end."

Sheen agreed. Yeah, they were some crazy chicks (especially the loudmouthed one). Yeah, he didn't get them. Yeah, Libby was smoking, even in that fairly simple arrangement of clothes she usually wore. Yeah, he was a lucky guy.

But wait…

"I DON'T GET GIRL'S TALK!" he panicked as his second revelation registered to his brain. That…that was the stuff that conspiracies were made of! And conspiracies meant…meant…well, it was a pretty creepy word, so that was bad, too. He leaned back in his chair, not even noticing that he'd begun to wave his hands as though trying to chase off a monster. The entire class turned around to him, the chemistry teacher included.

"SHEEN!" they all cried at the same time. They were used to this procedure…after all they had had three long years of practice. Well, that was if you didn't even count those, who'd had the misfortune to meet the 'Sheenster' already in elementary school.

The victim of public onslaught scoffed at them. They could rot in their ignorance, for all he cared. He wouldn't tell them about the new threat he'd just discovered. Even if they cried and begged.

Ha. Especially if they did that.

"So what are you going to do, girl?" Libby continued her conversation with Cindy. She kept her voice down, so that at least those whose names weren't chronically associated with disaster and chaos wouldn't hear them. The last thing she wanted was anyone (well besides said inevitable ones that her best friend was still loath to call _her_ friends) to pry into her Cindy's private affairs like she knew they would try to for the sake of good gossip. The last time _this_ had happened, she actually hadn't know whom she felt more sorry for – Cindy, those who spread the rumors, or herself for getting caught up between the lines.

At her side, the blonde shrugged. Wanted to do? Many things. _Would_ do?

"I have no idea, Libs. But I feel like kicking him so far outta the solar system, it'll take a time paradox to bring him back here!"

Sheen, who naturally had been listening very closely to them (ah, the joys of developing an attention span that now covered 45 seconds instead of 19) felt, as he heard Cindy's last words, that he was finally getting the picture.

Conspiracies, pah.

"So I'm betting on anger issues." He informed Carl, casually pulling out his wallet under his desk. It didn't really surprise him to unfold this mystery. He'd been calling Anonymous Wrath-Abusers on Cindy's behalf for years.

Usually NOT when he was at his home.

Usually when he WAS at Jimmy's home.

He was pretty sure that one day, she was going to find out and the look on his best friend's face would be priceless then.

"Sheen, you know, I'm not allowed to gamble!" Carl moaned and pushed the wallet away from his side of the desk as though it was a tissue infected with a lethal malady. Which was probably even what he understood under the term 'gamble'.

"C'mon dude!" Sheen chastised his friend. "We're seventeen! We're ruthless! We're _men_!" He was about to hop onto his desk, but Mister P., who'd grown used to his hyper student after many and _long_ sessions with his shrink, sensed the danger immediately and stared him effectively down. Hampered, but not defeated, Sheen waited until Mister P.'s eyes had left him and then turned back to Carl to corrupt his fellow 'man'.

"Don't you feel the call of the wild, Carls? If we don't spend our money excessively on excessively stupid excesses now, then WHEN will we ever?"

Carl shifted nervously, the seed of doubt sprouting in his thoughts as he was confronted with this profound and coherent argument. Suddenly he wished that Jimmy was with them in chemistry class. He always knew how to solve these moral dilemmas. And if he didn't, he just bent the rules and did what he wanted to do anyways. Well…perhaps Jimmy wasn't the best moral compass either.  
Suddenly he found the solution.

"But my _mom_ told me-" He caught the surpressed chuckles from a few guys on his left and turned beet red. It seemed if the perfect solution was to be ridiculed in elementary school…it really, truly wouldn't get better in high school.

" I mean…MY GIRLFRIEND told me that's all…"he tried to cover up, but Sheen cut him off, before he could even present what he really was going to say.

"Dude, I knew you had a 'getting the hots for moms' phase, but dating your own mother?" Sheen gagged." Not. Cool."

To undermine his words, he scooted two feet away from Carl and promptly stabbed the mystery sandwich with the leg of his chair, dragging a hardly appealing trace of mystery meat over the floor. Nobody knew how it had gotten to the floor in the first place, but that didn't really matter, when Carl glared in turn at the sandwich stabber and cried out:

"HEY I-"

To which Sheen responded:

"OH YEAH, YOU-"

Which, in turn, just screamed for the very clever reply:

"OH YEAH! YEAH-"

Cindy twirled around to them, her eyes still blazing with that mind blowing fury that took its miraculous effect on everyone but her best friend. Unbeknownst to them, Carl's and Sheen's chatter had increased in volume with every word they had spoken, much to the annoyance of one ticked off blonde in front of them.

"Will you dipsticks cut it out, already?" she spat, willing herself with all her might to refrain from more …cutting remarks. These were Carl and Sheen after all. No matter how aggravated she was, she did NOT want to be responsible for any nonsense that would pour out of their mouths the minute she REALLY insulted them.

Luckily, her best friend backed her up. As she always did, although she got nothing but tips when she played at her birthday parties. That was true friendship right there.

" Yeah, she's kinda having a moment here." Libby stated with that 'duh, isn't it obvious' voice that nobody mastered quite as wonderfully as her, at the same time wondering if that hadn't been self-explanatorily by the way she and her friend had talked to each other. She was used to spelling everything out for Sheen, yet it had its unnerving moments.

Unfortunately, spelling it out without _really_ spelling it out was prone to end in misunderstandings. The alarm went on in Libby's head already, as she saw a thoughtful expression cross Sheen's face (and she had enough scars to show for the justification of that sentiment) and he tilted his head, as though it had finally come to him, why exactly the blonde was all worked up.

But she kept her mouth shut, _believing in the impossible_.

"You having your monthlies again, Cindy?"

_Bad choice._

The bomb exploded like that, loud and clearly for the entire class to hear. Immediately all eyes set on the four of them, chemistry long since forgotten (when had they ever paid attention to it anyway?), – and the reactions to Sheen's innocent question were varied. The girls gasped, thanking every god in heaven that, yes, they did not have the misfortune to have him call them their friends, the boys gaped at their fellow man, wondering whether he was a fast or slow bleeder (and chuckling inside the creepy, dark back of their minds about that awfully clever pun) and Nick, too cool to be placed in any of those childish categories, commented good-humoredly from the back of class:

"More like dailies, if ya know what I mean."

Not that he really knew what he meant. At least, if he did, a lot of girls would be very disappointed.

Cindy's face had meanwhile assumed a very, very unhealthy shade of red, which was quite entertaining to watch, seeing as it had been a couple of months since she's worn that lovely rouge the last time. Yet, for Mr.P.'s sake, who was uneasily shifting on his seat, his eyes suspiciously wet as he asked himself _why_ he'd been assigned to this class, she restrained herself once again. Compassion was a funny little thing.

Through gritted teeth she spoke:

"_No_, Sheen I do _not_ and I'd appreciate it, if you didn't-" But, sadly, she didn't get far enough to explain to Sheen the beautifully simple concept of things to talk about and things to label as 'strictly girl business only and never ever to refer to in public, private or in between' as the second unenlightened one in the room decided to add his two cents.

"You don't have to be ashamed, Cindy." Carl chimed in with a meek smile on his face and patted her shoulder, mistaking her flushed cheeks for a sign of embarrassment. Snickers rang from everywhere, as Cindy startled at the contact." We're all friends here."

"Yeaha, besides it's not like we don't know 'em already." Sheen added generously." Like, do you remember last year…that incident with the fortune teller and the mollusk…?" he gave a chuckle, unaware of the sudden start that went through _everyone's_ body at the mention of _that_ event.

It had been worse than when they'd met the diviner and the jellyfish in fifth grade. And _that_ -meant something.

Although it was impossible from the scientific point of view, Cindy managed to flush even brighter, representing a wonderful imitation of a match light as she sat up straight in her chair. Her left eye twitched when her head turned around and she, ever so gently, removed Carl's pudgy hand from her shoulder. It was a miracle she didn't chop it off, by the way her teeth gnashed. Foreseeing the soon to come need for an ambulance, Libby quickly reached for her arm and squeezed it tightly to calm her down.

Sheen, however, was still blissfully oblivious to the web he caught himself in.

"Wasn't that when Jimmy said he finally understood why she's called a 'Vortex'?" he mused and that was, when even the last teen in class realized, that one of them was not going to survive this day.

"He said _that_?" Cindy screeched in such a dramatic manner, that it would've been comical if not for the fact that said comical figure happened to practice several martial arts since kindergarten. Humiliation, anger, fury and _anger_ clouded her better judgment and so she shook Libby's arm off, jumping up from her seat. Her meticulously arranged folders and pencil case fell to the ground with a loud, clanking sound, but she didn't even notice. Neither did anyone else, for all eyes were practically glued to her every move. Cindy did not disappoint.

"I DON'T BELIEVE HIM!" she roared and stalked off, shoving the desks in front of her out of the way.

Mr. P. made one helpless attempt to gain back the control over his class as he cried out : "Miss Vortex, where are you…." , but his words were drowned in the deafening crash as the door slammed shut. Defeated, the teacher sunk back on his chair and watched the great poster showcasing the period system that had been plastered on the wall ever since students had set foot into Lindbergh High, fall unspectacularly onto the heads of two unfortunate boys.

Nobody moved.

They just…stared.

The class stared at Cindy's empty seat (Cindy, who'd never ditched class before – if you didn't count the times she sneaked of to some loony adventure with the 'gang'), stared at Libby (who sighed and already saw her cell phone's bill going higher – for Cindy definitely was going to write a LOT of text messages that day), stared at Carl (who stared right back at them), stared at each other and finally at Mr. P. . It wasn't a very productive pastime, but in the end, they all realized…

Murphy's Law had triumphed. And that was a fact.

"Oh wait…" Sheen's voice interrupted suddenly their thoughts as they finally thought they'd made sense of the recent scene. "**I** was the one who said that!"

He slapped his head and gave a little laugh, amused by his own mix-up. "_He_ was the one who fixed the hover car!"

"Sheen…"Libby reached slowly, but dangerously for his shirt and brought him up to her face. She didn't need to spell it out this time for him to realize that, whatever he'd done; it hadn't been a particularly good thing.

Which meant it was time to whip out the charm to get out of this one.

"Why Libby…I love it when you're rough with me…!" he tried, but faltered under her gaze as she scoffed at him and threw him back in his seat. Sheen fell to the ground.

"In your dreams, darlin', in your dreams."

"Got it!" he announced and glanced groggily up to her.

* * *

One rotten text message that was all she'd gotten_._

_Found him. Dead meat_.

Then…nothing. For hours. And hours. And hours. All day. Not even during lunch.

Pah.

She could see her friend was unnerved, but hey, it wasn't _her_ fault they didn't share more classes with each other. This silly thing was more than grating on her nerves and it wasn't healthy for Cindy as well, she decided as she stuffed her books into the locker, which, as always, was much too small for her needs, what with her personal stuff and all the notes that had to fit in there too.

_Dead meat_. Wow. She didn't even want to know _how_ she'd found him.

Whatever. Tonight they'd party it up. No excuses accepted. Her girl could use some distraction, and if she was honest, the last time she'd been out dancing was...

"Hey, Nissa, here's the guest list for the party next week."

Libby's head jerked around to the speaker who stood just a couple of lockers away from her. School was over; most of the students were already gone. (As would she have been, hadn't she been waiting for her supposedly best friend, who didn't show up again after she'd stormed out of chemistry!) The hallway was completely empty. Libby blinked, confused. She had no excuse to mistrust her eyes as she watched Brittany hand Nissa the holy, the sacred, the list.

_Her_ list.

"_What the…"_

"Thank you." Nissa smiled up at her blonde friend and, stuffing the holy list into her bag pack, waved Brittany goodbye. The latter nodded her head, and went on to find her own locker, humming a little melody under her breath. Casually, extremely casually Libby closed her locker just as she walked by.

"Hey girl."

The blonde started on hearing her voice and Libby's eyes narrowed. That wasn't how she normally behaved – they'd always been friends, hadn't they? Oh yes, they had been. Sure, they hadn't hung out in a while...maybe weeks…maybe a year…. or so, but Cindy and she had always been greeted with utmost civility when they passed her in the hall.

Something was up. Something she just knew she wasn't going to like.

Slowly, Brittany turned around and looked at her with what Libby would almost call a guilty expression.

"He-Hey, Libby." she echoed hesitantly, and then quickly looked away. That was … more than weird.

"Nice shoes." Libby tried to set her up, keeping her voice nonchalant.

"Thanks. Nice hair."

"Same old, same old."

"Right…"

An awkward silence fell between them. Which had never happened before, for Brittany loved to chat and chat until your ears bled. But now? All she did was fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. She had some serious explaining to do. Oh yes. Unable to take the silence any longer, Libby decided that an open confrontation was still the best way to go.

"Say, Brittany…" she started, eyebrows arched. "…when you were with Nissa a few moments ago, I thought I sa-"

"It isn't what it looks like, I swear!" Brittany suddenly burst out, before slapping a hand over her mouth.

_Jackpot_.

Under Libby's accusing glare, her shoulders slumped. "Alright. It is exactly what it looks like."

"_What_?" Libby asked scandalized. "This is _my_ party, Brittany."

The blonde gulped. "_Was_ your party." She twirled a strand of her hair around her finger and avoided her eyes as they searched hers. "I'm sorry."

"But…I've always organized…ever since…middle school…"

"I'm sorry." Brittany repeated weakly.

"You just kicked me out? Just like that? And you didn't even tell me? And…for Nissa? For Nissa? That's…that's…" Libby was at a loss of words. Setting up the party at the end of each term had been her thing. Always. Everyone knew that. Who ruled the Science Fair? Neutron. Who kicked everyone's butts? Cindy. Who was the most beautiful girl in school? Quinlan. And who set up the damn party at the end of the term? _Libby_ darn it _Folfax_. These were the facts. These were the laws! You didn't just change the laws, they were…the laws. Nobody ever questioned the laws. Every party she'd thrown had been a hit.

Because, well…_she'd_ thrown them.

It was her niche, alright? Libby loved to pick out the music, to boss around the decorators, to write the invitations, to invite the live band, to get the food, to…everything. She was the epitome of style, of dance, of everything that made a party good. And they had …_replaced_ her?

"Nissa's got nothing to do with it!" Brittany defended her friend. "It was…a mutual decision of the committee."

"The committee." Libby repeated flatly, putting one hand on her hip. The so-called committee was nothing but a bunch of Nick's groupies who were always breathing down her neck to make the next party even better than the former one. Technically they were there to help her. They never did, but hey, she'd never complained.

"Yeah…"Brittany tried to think of something, but failed. "Yeah."

"And…why?"

By the looks of it, that was the one thing Brittany really didn't want to answer.

Libby used this moment of silence to try processing whatever it was that was happening to her. This was the _fifth_ time in _two weeks_ that something in her life went world-changingly wrong. Why, last Monday they'd kicked her out of the experimental modern dance group that she'd joined as soon as she entered middle school – she'd been late for one crucial rehearsal once again because she'd been busy fixing…something someone had caused. On Wednesday her singing teacher had quit, absolutely frustrated, and exclaimed that she had a wonderful voice, but was impossible to teach as long as that someone was around, exhausting the teacher's every nerve. The next day she had had to learn that her contest entry for the country-wide young fashion designer's fair had never reached its destination, due to _someone_ mixing up the address. It'd been her chance to earn an early scholarship for college, something she'd been working on nonstop for longer than six months! She'd been pretty devastated for three whole days.

Then, this Tuesday they'd chucked her out of the yearbook's committee, after three years of handling the editing process, because, similar to the situation with her dancing group, someone had prevented her from turning up when the tasks were given out. Well that, and because Cindy's attempt to 'set them straight' afterwards hadn't been exactly subtle.

And now… now they deprived her of the very last thing in this unlucky term she'd been looking forward to – her party.

She stared at Brittany's abashed face, yet didn't know what to say. It was quite surreal, but then again it wasn't, no matter how much she wished to ignore the evidence. She'd done that at first, but now it became glaringly obvious: every single one of those mishaps had been featuring the 'help' of the same individual, that one person it all lead down to. And…

"Hey, Libby-kins there you are! Are ya ready to start the Thursday Afternoon of Seriously Epic Thursday Activities?"

…judging by the way Brittany flinched at the voice and lowered her gaze even further as she heard the voice calling out to her, Libby had no doubt left that he'd been the main factor in today's events too.

Her insides froze.

This wasn't happening.

'_It's his entire fault'_ the rational part of her mind reasoned mercilessly. '_All your chances and pleasures are fading and he can't even understand the damage he's causing. He never did understand what you were really passionate about.'_

'_That ain't t true.'_ her other half argued, the one that inexplicably grew soft and illogical whenever he was involved. '_Of course he's always a little…off track, but he means well. An' he cares about me.'_

'_But is he tryin' to make things work out? Is someone like him even _ready_ to be in a relationship? You don't share any interests, hobbies __**or**__ ambitions. Sure, he's idolizing you but, girl, is that all there is to it?'_

Libby looked at the ground. She didn't take any notice when Brittany stealthily skipped ahead and weaseled away from her. Doubting something good wasn't her style. She'd never been the one to mull over her feelings, weigh the options and look far ahead when there was the possibility to just enjoy herself. It was Cindy's thing, not hers. She was the anti-overanalyzing factor in this friendship, for heaven's sake.

Yet she couldn't deny all those times she'd whished he was more serious about…well at least one thing for once. She'd never held his flaws against him, after all they were what made him special and made _her_ smile whenever she was missing the spice in her notoriously leaned-back lifestyle. But lately what had been so nonchalant and easy to forgive was becoming…a different matter. Because…well because…

She'd started to care very deeply for him.

It wasn't any longer that platonic 'yeah, you're cute alright, let's date' feeling she'd harbored for him when they started their relationship. There was more to it now- over the years, along with everything else, her feelings had matured too. The signs were subtle, but they'd become as natural as breathing to her. She would unconsciously wonder what crazy thing he would've said when she encountered an accidentally comical incident, she would accurately answer to the question what the heck he was up to in the moment, even though he'd never told her, she would pass by a shop and mentally note that he would just love to waste his money on this useless trash. He wasn't just the little geeky kid with a giant crush on her anymore, whose presence she enjoyed. Somehow, she couldn't pinpoint the moment it had happened, he'd become a constant in her life. And that was why she was suddenly starting to think about _them_, why she was starting to ask _questions_ and wondered whether they were even compatible at long sight.

Not that the results were that reassuring. Cindy would always tell her that they didn't match whenever the subject came up lately. Not in words, but, c'mon, she knew her girl and her opinions better than Cindy herself did. She wasn't getting on Sheen's case like she used to, after all six years of facing danger at every turn side by side could make even the craziest insomniac grow on you, but she still failed to see what exactly it was that Libby saw in him. The entire homerun was treating her as though she was some precious curiosity for giving the 'whacky loser a shot' as they so eloquently put it and regarded her relationship with good humored curiosity. Her parents were strangely amused and waited patiently for her childhood infatuation to wear off and proceed to set her eyes on something more stable, more reasonable.

Yet, that wasn't the entire story.

When was the last time they'd done something together that they both had _equally_ enjoyed?

When was the last time they'd gone out _dancing_?

When was the last time she'd had his undivided attention?

And was it possible for him to focus on something as intensely as it took to maintain a healthy relationship?

A couple of years ago she would've laughed at the thought of someone getting under her skin like this. It was entirely unfamiliar and she'd never been a big fan of surprises.

"Libby!" he repeated and stopped before her. His voice was hoarse – who knew where the heck he'd been running around before he found her, but there was a huge grin plastered on his face. "You ready to go?"

"Hey Sheen…" she avoided his innocently questioning eyes and fidgeted slightly. He was always so sweet about it when they went to the movies. Sure, most of the time they ended up with a house ban, but it was nothing Jimmy's hypno beam couldn't fix. That was just what Sheen was, she reasoned…a real sweetheart when he wanted to, but then he'd turn around 180 degrees and make a mess of what he'd achieved. And he couldn't help it.

'_Good grief, girl…you don't even know what you want.'_

She really needed to make up her mind.

"About our plans for today, Sheen…"

But not tonight.

* * *

"Now, Cindy wait!"

A couple of squirrels squeaked and fled the scene, when the quickly paced footsteps of a seemingly unnerved young man interrupted their quality time of collecting acorns that had fallen down on the street, but he kept racing after the barely visible flash of blonde and green that turned around the corner of yet another block.

"Oh come on, Vortex!" Jimmy cried exasperatedly and sped up as he saw her stalking off to her house with worrisome speed. He wasn't about to let her get away, now that he'd finally found her – after searching for her the entire day ever since she'd come and yelled at him during his free period for reasons he couldn't possibly fathom. But whenever had she made any sense, anyway?

The door of the Vortexes' home slammed shut into his face.

"OW! What are you doing?" Jimmy complained loudly and took a step back.

Oh great. She sulked. It had to be a female thing, or something.

With faint annoyance he glowered at the door. This…this was kindergarten. No, scratch that, it was immature, infantile, inane and utterly fatuous. And more. Actually, it was worth an entire thesaurus of words!

But, his aversion to the ridiculous aside, even worse was the fact that it deprived him of valuable time he could've used to work on his **private** scientific research. Ever since the government had decided to monitor his achievements (in the interest of public safety) and had incorporated him into a network of scientific facilities across the states as to – as they'd expressed it- decrease the destructive factor of his genius and INcrease the value of his inventions and insights for a broader audience than his neighborhood friends, time for leisure projects hadn't been exactly something he possessed in endless amounts.

"Are we in elementary school again?" he set her up, his desire to get this over with as quickly as possible clouding his diplomatic tact.

For a split second the door opened. Angry green eyes glared at him, then he found himself face to face with pink painted wood again. He scoffed.

"Well, very mature, Vortex, very mature. What's going on here?"

Cindy gave him no answer, but he was 89.56% certain that she was still standing on the other side of the door, listening to him. She usually was when he ended up with said lovely door as his sole conversation partner. Maybe it gave her some secret thrill to grate on his nerves even when she didn't use words.

"Oh, just tell me, will you?" he sighed, losing his patience. Which he didn't really possess beforehand anyways.

Silence.

Nothing but silence.

Jimmy leant against the doorframe, letting his gaze travel over the street, his father's car, the pie his mother had placed on the window sill and finally back to the pink walls that made the Vortexes residence. Holy Heisenberg, it _could_ be so simple. For the logical (and therefore best) thing to do would be to cross the street just like that and let her brood on her own, whatever it was that had stimulated the part of her diencephalon that coordinated anger. It was the kind of thing his younger, say, ten-year-old self would've done. Merrily and with no qualms. Oh, he envied ten-year-old Jimmy right now… He hadn't known the treacherous effects of hormones, attraction and getting-a-door-slammed-into-your-face, yet.

"You know, I could open that door against your will right now." he stated casually, inspecting his fingernails. A quiet snort rang through the wood.

"I can."

More silence.

Jimmy's voice remained conversationally. "Although I don't even know why I should bother, because evidently you have entered a state of mind totally devoid of any reason."

Angry mumbling. The corner of his lips turned slightly up. He got angry mumbling. That was at least something.

"Did you know the chances of that happening were actually two in three?" he asked and pictured her roll her eyes, as he knew she couldn't resist doing.

"The two being Carl and Sheen?"

Back to silent treatment again. Yay.

"I know, pretty lame. Sheen made it up."Jimmy explained with a shrug. It was true. On an afterthought he added:

"No, he didn't realize he was insulting his own intelligence."

Silence.

He frowned.

Now, that was all he got. She better found her voice again in the next 14 seconds or he would just walk off as he originally should have done. He could practically hear his poor neglected projects scream for him to come back and work on them – if you excused this scientifically nonsensical personification.

3…2…1…

_Hasta la vista_, as Sheen would say. With slight frustration, Jimmy turned and skipped off the first step.

"Well, as fun as this has been, I better occupy myself with other things again. Bye Cindy, bye Cindy's door, it's been really swell."

In retrospective, he should have seen it coming. His foot was still hovering in the air to finish the second step, when the door shot open and the same flaring eyes he'd already had the pleasure to get to know came into view.

"Don't you dare back out on me now, Neutron!" Cindy threatened, clutching the doorknob so tightly, that her knuckles turned white. Jimmy blinked at her, only half surprised.

"Why, hello there, sunshine!" he exclaimed mockingly. "Finally care to tell me WHAT THE HECK'S GOING ON?"

It was evident right there, that even as a 17-year-old genius, he still didn't get women. For sure enough, Cindy instantly cried out the inevitable:

"Like you don't know!" And had Jimmy possessed any _common_ sense he would've known in this exact moment that he could only lose if he dug deeper.

Unfortunately, he didn't.

"Well, duh,I don't!" he stated instead, gesturing with his hands for emphasis." One minute I'm peacefully tutoring away, the next moment YOU come bustling in like a swarm of locusts on crack, yell at me and then just go marching off!"

Cindy's eyes narrowed at him. "Yeah, I bet _that_ tutoring session was really satisfying, alright!" she spat and crossed her arms. Maybe he would turn into one of those icky looking puddles of chemical substances he adored so much if she stared hard enough. She certainly wouldn't complain.

Jimmy was caught off guard. "Huh?"

But his genuine bewilderment was instantly taken for denial of the undeniable – as it always was- and resulted in Cindy throwing her hands up and turning on her heel.

"Urgh, I don't know why I even bother with you!"

" Wait!" Jimmy shook off his confusion quick enough to stop with his foot what otherwise would've become yet another boy-door conversation. Unconsciously, he began to ramble.

"Okay, so I'm sorry! You _know_ how Betty asked me to tutor her in physics, because she really isn't quite getting the hang of their recent topic and she fears her grades are slipping, but well, she's graduating this year and so it's really important that she passes, and naturally I offered my help, because, you know, genius and all, welfare to mankind, but I swear, it was just tutoring, nothing was going-" Suddenly he stopped short, realizing what was coming out of his mouth. What the perpetual mobile? Cindy glared at him and he sang like a bird under Chinese water torture? Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. He had to get a grip, for the love of Goddard. After all, this was happening way too often lately and frankly, he didn't even know what the meaning behind it was. Or why in the world she always acted as though it was perfectly acceptable for her to scrutinize everything he did whenever she wasn't around.

With annoyance he therefore cried out:

"Hey…why am I even justifying my actions to you, Vortex? I have no commitment to you, you're not my _keeper_!"

"Nor your would-be-girlfriend, as you, once again, so brilliantly demonstrated, Neutron!" Cindy shot right back, throwing him off guard for the second- no third time this day.

"What the hell are you babbling about?"

Her gaze only darkened. This, albeit not unexpected, seemed too familiar in execution and intensity - it switched on an alert in his head. Something was wrong here…he knew that all of a sudden, because he'd seen that same expression on that same face twice for the _same_ reason and it hadn't been prett-…

"Wait, what day is it?" he panicked and glanced at his watch.

_Oh no._

Oh no, no, no, no.

This wasn't the date it was supposed to show. This wasn't today's date. He'd know it if it were. Goddard would've told him. Yes, he would have. It wasn't already the 16th. No, no way. There had to be a glitch somewhere, somewhere, or maybe it was defect altogether, because he knew that it wasn't in fact, it wasn't in fact…

But Cindy's sour expression confirmed what his watch mercilessly showed.

"Leapin' Leptons." he muttered, slapping his forehead." Not again."

Cindy faked a little applause and nodded at his shrinking figure. He'd finally figured it out, bravo.

"Well, it was nice talking to you, Neutron…not!" her face fell rapidly back into an angry frown and she was about to shut the door once more- but this time permanently.

In a last, desperate and completely hopeless attempt to rekindle the situation, Jimmy leapt forward.

"No, wait—No, Cindy, I'm sorry, I didn't realize…you know how the last two times the guys at NASA were getting on my case to solve this and that for them and when the International Security is thrown into the mix, I kind of tend to-" He placed his foot quickly back between the door and her porch. "I forgot, okay? I simply forgot! I mean I'm planning a large scale scan of the _worldwide_ submarine area here, guaranteed to prove or disprove the existence of the legendary city of Atlantis and you gotta admit that's a little more important than -" he caught on her intensifying scowl and felt frustration setting in. "Will you even _listen_ to me, Vortex?"

"Uhm—_no._" Cindy replied smartly. "I have no commitment to you Neutron, so I choose to ignore you and your flimsy excuses –As. I. Please!" With a huff she finally slammed the door shut, almost crushing his foot in the process. "Have fun chumming up with Opisthoproctidaes and Coccorella atratas!"

"OUCH!" Jimmy cried out as he jumped away from her door and cursed under his breath.

Well. Great. That went _just_ great.

Shaking his head, he turned around and crossed the street, beating himself up over his own thoughtlessness and yet, wondering if her reaction wasn't really blowing things out of proportion from an objective point of view. After all, three itty bitty times…

Oh god. _Three_ times.

_Three_.

That was _so_ bad. Dejectedly he trotted over to his silly little club house which still disguised his sanctuary , let the DNA check run through and finally settled on his chair inside the lab, staring idiotically at the walls instead of getting his great, wonderful scan to start searching the sea beds of the world.

Three times. Why, he was dead meat.

But then his eyes lit up and something entirely else hit him.

"Hey…maybe I _will_ be able to document new information concerning the ecology of the Coccorella atrata, Goddard! Wouldn't _that_ be marvelous?"

* * *

.

_A/N: Pretty shippy, but it needed to be done.__ I guess it's blindingly obvious just WHAT Jimmy did, uh? __ I hope I didn't go over the top with my account on Sheen's and Libby's relationship, but I wanted to give him some grounds to prove himself for all he's worth. ;) Thanks ever so much for reading! Next update will definitely take longer. Vacation, what can ya do?_


	3. Conversations

_Chapter Two – Conversations_

_

* * *

_

_A/N: Thanks a lot for the feedback :D. It made my day. And whatever it is Jimmy did wrong will be explicitly stated later on. Just not yet. ;)_

Disclaimer:I don't own Jimmy Neutron or anything related to the show.

* * *

Traffic was slow in Retroville when the rush hour had just passed and the teenagers were still dolling themselves up for yet another wild night out. It was that time of the day when you heard the crickets chirp and didn't reach out instantly for insect-repellent spray, because you were just so very happy to _hear_ the little buggers chirp and chirp till your ears bled. No explosions, no party music, no alien invasions. Just the crickets' chirping and you.

Ah...

There were a few late workers in the streets on their way home, but their number was so negligibly small that the city resembled a perfect TV idyll of peace and pleasantness on a warm summer's eve. Wrapped in an amber-colored sky with a sunny cherry on top.

Life was good. Life was easy.

Life was…

The screeching of tiles shattered the Retrovillian harmony, followed closely by violent battering and the sound of metal clanking against the road. Fearfully, a couple of brave citizens took it upon themselves to rush to their windows and shove the drapes aside to get a faint glimpse at the rude intruder.

They prayed that they'd finally revoked _her_ driver's license.

"GIIIIIIIRRRRLLL!"

They were proven wrong.

An expensive, but heavily dented car raced into view, faster than the daring souls at the windows could blink, wipe their noses, pray some more, cry or curse the local administration for letting the single most insane driver Retroville had ever seen on the loose. It shifted repeatedly from side to side, staying on the right lane long since neglected as the unimportant thing it was, and borderlined on tumbling upside down, when it made a sharp turn to the right. The shrill cries and laughter of two resident girls were almost drowned in the deafening crash as the car slammed back on the road – luckily in the right position.

"Libby, is this freedom, or what?" Cindy cried out ecstatically and laughed from her leaned back position behind the steering wheel. Strands of her blond hair danced over her eyes that were glazed over with excitement. Why hadn't they given her the damn license sooner, when she was sixteen and all ready to apply? Driving was wonderful. Driving was an experience. She loved the wind blowing against her face, the speed as her wheels ran hot, the flash of shadowy silhouettes as they ran in front of her headlights-

"WATCH OUT, WOMAN!"

Frantically Libby almost leapt on her best friend's lap and pointed with wild gestures at the poor soul that was soon about to be peeled of their tiles. The girl was a nervous mess and so was everything else about her. Her hair was a mess; her clothes were a mess, hell, even her skillfully applied make-up - a giant mess of messiness. The only thing she cared about right now was _survival_.

Cindy blinked.

"Huh?"

The car took a violent turn to the left side and missed the passer-by by no more than a hair's breadth, tumbling aimlessly over the road for few, but antagonizing seconds. Libby screamed again – or perhaps she'd never stopped, for who would ever know, while Cindy's laughter only poured out of her lips louder than ever. This was it. This was IT! She ran high on adrenaline whenever she was put behind a steering wheel, it was even better than piloting one of Neutron's rockets – because here she was in _total_ charge of everything she did and nobody complained pathetically over silly little(or larger) dents in the hood. (Not to mention that her mom's insurance covered self-inflicted accidents better than Jimmy's.)

"That was close!"

Libby stared at her irrational mirth.

Merely a second later she snapped.

"LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT THIS INSTANT YOU KIDNAPPER PERSON!"

Frenziedly, the girl buckled the door and generously ignored the fact that they were still driving (tumbling, racing, flying…) at full speed. When Cindy reached out for her to stop her desperate attempt, she promptly pushed her hand away. "LET GO! I'M WALKIN' THIS ROAD!"

But she didn't. Because the door didn't open.

_**Heck.**_

The stupid door didn't open and she was stuck in this car with the one girl who'd driven five driving instructors into retirement, one into therapy, another one into schizophrenia and failed the driving test well over a dozen times before the town decided that the rapidly increasing decline of driving instructors had to be put to a halt – and resigned to giving her that damn license.

Almost crashing into a plane with a rocket Libby could take.

Crashing into Mars she could take.

Crashing into Mars _twice_- hell, why not?

But this? _This_?

"Jeez, Libs don't be such a spoil sport!" Cindy tilted her head to her right to roll her eyes at Libby, who was unconsciously pulling her own braids. It started to peeve her how little people appreciated her driving style, her well-deserved freedom. Why, that one time she'd rescued Neutron, Carl and Sheen from an underground lair of some crazed criminal (she'd eventually given up on trying to remember all their names), Sheen and Carl had actually run _back_ to their prison cellwhen they'd noticed that she had come with her car. It'd been a hard piece of work to get them inside and strap them to their seats- they'd scratched and kicked and whatnot. However, she'd never received any feedback from Neutron himself, because he had been nothing but a blubbering mess for the remains of that day and afterwards had refused to ever, EVER, talk about that experience again. She had a feeling, though, that this incident hadn't really increased her chances to fly his rockets _legally_ one day. Which was a shame, because they were even faster than her baby, as she ever so fondly referred to her car.

"I assure you, I'm fully capable of driving this vehicle safely and respons-"

Libby bent over and hastily grabbed the steering wheel. "KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD, DAMNIT!"she yelled and altered their course.

Honking sounded from everywhere, flashing lights almost blind sighted her. Surprised, Cindy had to note that they had barely avoided to crash into the opposing traffic.

"Oops."

With an abashed expression she pulled over and brought the car back onto a straighter course. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment.

That didn't go quite as she'd planned.

Libby leaned back in her seat. "You know, if you keep that up I'm gonna look ten years older when we get off this car." she sighed.

Cindy rolled her eyes again. Exaggerated much?

"Yeah, yeah… so I made one mistake."

" One?" Libby cried incredulously.

"Oh c'mon, Libs, what else could possibly ha-"

As if on cue, Libby lunged at Cindy again.

"Unidentified Flying Object AHEAD!"

"What the-"

She grabbed Cindy's shirt and pulled her face to face. The blonde swore she could see the blood vessels in her eyes pulsate. This was serious business.

"THE HOVER CAR!"

Sure enough they heard the motors of Neutron's hover car roar only a few yards ahead of them – apparently she'd unconsciously switched lanes again. Cindy shrieked and violently pulled the car on the pavement, tiles reeking. When she had said she wanted to kick him out of the solar system she'd never meant that _she'd_ kick the bucket, too! The floating vehicle tumbled merely inches over their heads, almost turning upside-down. Although hard to make out, a person was visible in the driver's seat, incredulously staring over his shoulder at them, as he continued to drive.

It was that moment that Cindy found the perfect solution to downplay her own shortcomings – by blaming him. As usual.

"NEUTRON, you idiot, you-!" she started to yell after him and didn't even notice that she pushed the gas pedal tighter, as she reasoned in her head how he'd treacherously put the passer-by in her way, switched the lanes so she would get off course and hypnotized her best friend into believing that she wasn't an wonderful and responsible driver. At her side, Libby's face darkened.

"Cindy." she said sternly. "Let. Go."

"…What?"

With a cry, Libby threw herself forwards and hectically tried to yank Cindy's foot away from the pedal, however she had to find that her friend was not very much inclined to slow down their speed and soon she had to wrestle with two feet, instead of only one. Her deeply aggravated voice sounded muffled from the car's bottom:

"Didn't you hear? Each time you push that pedal, a kitty dies somewhere! NOW LET GO!"

She just wouldn't leave that one alone. Why everyone was so opposed to high speed, Cindy would never understand. It was not like it was deadly to make contact with a wall, occasionally a tree…well, yeah, it was. Whatever. She sighed with annoyance- and slight disappointment that the fun ride was over.

"JEEZ, if you insist…."

Without warning Cindy pulled the brakes and the car came to a brutally sudden halt. Unfortunately, Libby had just risen to her seat again and so she was taken with the recoil and forcefully rocked forwards, head first to the windshield.

"WHAAAAAAAAAA!"

Cindy pulled her quickly back into her seat, just before she would've been stuck with a flat pudding nose for the rest of her life. That just wasn't stylish. Clutching her heart, Libby closed her eyes and breathed in and out, in and out, in and…

It was over. She had trouble realizing it at first, but eventually it worked its way up into her brain. Thank heaven, it was OVER. She was free. She was alive. None of her clothes had been ripped apart.

THANK YOU.

When her eyelids fluttered open again, she met the wondering gaze of Cindy's and for a moment neither of them said a word. She certainly didn't mind, for inside her head the tumult was slowly dying down. She had survived, they had arrived, nobody got hurt…

Cindy's lips twitched. And then…

She laughed. Loudly. Uncharacteristically.

Utterly hysterically.

"You should see your face, Libby!"

"Girl…" She felt as though she'd just crossed the galaxy in a nutshell and the girl was laughing at her. _Laughing_. Well, that was it. Never again. She'd never ever take seat in this vehicle again. Or anything else which's steering wheel Cindy touched. Nu uh. No way. Even though it was (theoretically) convenient and she had no car of her own, because she'd never saved money when she was younger. But no. She wouldn't. And if she had to take the…

…_Hey._

"Cindy…do you remember fifth grade, when we were about to crash into Mars with Jimmy's rocket and I said if you'd somehow get a driver's license, I'd be takin'a bus?"

Cindy wiped her eyes, still chuckling under her breath. Mars? Mars, they'd been so often to Mars, how did Libby expect her to…ah. League of Villains. The rocket. Wheezer, the old snitch. The Quinlan photos. Sure.

"…Yeah…?"

Libby crossed her arms and rocked her head from the left to the right as she spat: "Well, NO KIDDING."

They blinked at each other for a split-second, before both of them broke into loud laughter.

* * *

The dance club's neon sign was already visible from the other side of the road. Beneath it, there were dozens of teenagers bustling about, on their way in and out, faces illuminated with flashy colored lights and their own excitement. Loud music blared through every pore of the building and caused the ground to quake slightly.

Eyes sparkling with enthusiasm, Libby eagerly grabbed Cindy's hand and hurried her along the road. She ignored her best friend's muffled protest, for she knew that Cindy enjoyed dancing, too –if not as obsessively as she did. Her guess was that Cindy had just started to mull over the 'thing' again. Her post-car-ride- endorphins were already wearing off. Never mind that. Libby didn't want to see any sour pusses tonight, no matter what. They were at the dance club, listening to, breathing, _living_ the music's vibe. The feeling was too good to stay upset.

"Now, THAT's what I'm talking about." she therefore stated, in an attempt to remind Cindy that she had to stop brooding and swung excitedly towards the entrance, each and every of her steps bouncing. The agony of their ride here was long since forgotten.

"My girl an' I partyin' it up with music, music and nothing but MUSIC! Oo, oo." She twirled around and flashed the doorkeeper an irresistible smile, who just nodded approvingly at her. Libby Folfax had been a regular, after all, until her sudden lack of appearance a few months ago. They were allowed to pass without any hold-backs. A glow encircled the girl's face as she took in the first glance at her beloved dance club's interior. Everything was still the way as it was supposed to be. Only louder. And more crowded.

"It's been WAY too long."

She sighed nostalgically.

"Yeah." Cindy agreed for Libby's sake, but crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest. Her eyes scanned the room in front of them with the mechanical precision of a troop general who just invaded the enemy's grounds – after all she hadn't been half as often here as Libby.

"And especially NONE-and I repeat _none_ of the guys to ruin everything." she added on afterthought. She glared at a couple of males that passed them by, as though they would turn into the chaotic trio any second. Bewildered they weaseled away from her. Cindy rolled her eyes.

It wasn't that she didn't appreciate her best friend's attempt to cheer her up, but it was kind of hard to get over a prime humiliation when you were locked up with hundreds of drunk, crazed and hormonally challenged teenagers on a dance floor. Half of which were going to your school.

But then again, what with all the stuff that was going on in Libby's life at the moment, she supposed she owed her friend to act cheerily- well, as cheerily as a Vortex could do. Which wasn't much. She loved her mother, but heck, that woman had never quite gotten the concept of laughing. Well, anything besides her beloved 'in-your-face-laugh'. Cindy smiled. She knew there was an _actual_ reason she loved her mother.

Libby was still dragging her further into the mass of dancing teenagers, only half listening to her sort of complaint. "Huh? Oh girl, you gotta let that go. We're here to have fun, not to mope about the stupidity of everythin' walking on the y-heavy chromosome-side of life!"

But she compromised and decided they'd sit down to grab some Purple Flurps, before the DJ whipped out the music that was actually worth dancing to. Cindy stifled a chuckle, as she saw the drinks her best friend ordered for them, but Libby was unperturbed and stuck to her choice. Past experiences had proven to her that getting trashed in a teenager's dance club wasn't the smartest thing for two unaccompanied girls to do.

As they slurped slowly their Flurps, something completely unrelated came to Cindy's mind – and looking back, she wondered why she hadn't taken notice of it before.

"Speaking of stupidity…" she started curiously. "Isn't this the night you and Sheen usually go out to„ her voice changed into a mocking tone. "'party it up'?"

It was one of those things she supposed she'd never understand. Libby had stuck to the little freak ever since they'd taken a liking to each other in elementary school and it didn't seem as though she regretted that choice. Unfortunately. Well…kinda. If Cindy was honest with herself she actually had not much reason to condemn their relationship the way she did – Sheen, although horrifyingly aggravating, was likable enough when he wasn't spazzing and it was obvious that he was deeply infatuated with her friend. It wasn't easy to find a guy who was that smitten with his girlfriend at their age, when high school seemed like a mating-open-everything-goes season. Yes, if she was honest it just bugged her that someone else was spending so much time around _her_ best friend.

But, pah, whenever had she been honest with herself? It only ended in embarrassment and slamming your door into other people's faces .Ha, she imagined that her mother would be _very_ disappointed in her if she actually started to become an honest individual – honesty wasn't exactly the key to the success she sought for. Ever since Sasha Vortex had realized that her daughter would probably not –'_**probably' being the damn key word**_! - reach Neutron's level of talent in everything scientific, she'd given her consent to Cindy's still not set in stone decision to pursue a career as a lawyer after she graduated.

Under the condition that she did her job well. But Cindy didn't worry much. She liked arguing. And she liked kicking other people's butts.

At her side, Libby's enthusiasm had dropped noticeably at the mention of Sheen's name, but she tried to avoid drawing Cindy's attention to this fact. The last thing she needed was to fuel her subtle aversion against her relationship.

"Ya, we go to the movies on Thursday, but this was an emergency girls' night callin', what with Neutron bein' the idiot he is, Cind." she replied and swung her head a little, when she recognized one of her favorite beats. Her best friend snorted and mumbled something awfully close to 'Atlantis', but Libby decided she was better off if she didn't ask. She would hear about it sooner or later anyways. She usually did.

"'Sides, it's not like it's a fixated thing between Sheen an' me. We're just datin' when we feel like it." she tried to keep her voice nonchalant and pleasant.

However, she was a little too overconfident in her friend's lack of perceptiveness. Although Libby usually filled out the spot as other people's living conscience and best informed member of the 'gang', Cindy was by no means born yesterday. The days when she was too smitten by the whole mess going on with her and Neutron to get a clue about Libby's state of mind were long since past. Well, most of the time.

"Oh, really?" Cindy asked dryly, one eyebrow cocked up. It was obvious she didn't buy _that_ one, but Libby was far too distracted by her own train of thoughts to notice.

"Well, yeah, he's a sweetheart, but he's…way too excited, know what I mean? I wanna take things slowly." Well, albeit not exactly the truth, she didn't lie either, Libby reasoned. There were a lot of things she wished that Sheen would take a little slower. Like his daily dose of sugar. Or caffeine.

"To focus on your 'friendship' first?" The blonde inquired sarcastically and used the one statement her best friend had used so often to describe her relationship with Sheen that it was getting a little ridiculous. Cindy had grudgingly be_friended_ the freak a long time ago and _she'd_ never felt the urge to go to the movies with him and listen to him go on and on about a guy in purple underwear. But Libby simply nodded.

"Exactly. Let things fall in place naturally, just go with the flow. He's always overdoing everything and though it's cute in its own weird, deranged way, I ain't ready for that kind o' commitment yet, y'know?"

Cindy threw her a doubtful gaze. "Whatever you say, Libs."

Libby nodded again, but didn't reply. How had it come from distracting Cindy from her messed up thing with Jimmy to an in-depth analysis of her own relationship, anyways?

Thinking that her friend was too absent-minded to notice, Cindy added in a sing song voice under her breath: "_I_ still think you're too good for that loser."

Libby, who'd just started to get up from her chair and was moving in the direction of the dance floor, turned around. " Huh?"

Quickly Cindy offered her a broad smile and stood as well. The corners of her mouth hurt a little, as she exclaimed: "Nothing."

Just because she wasn't exactly all happy-go-lucky at the moment she didn't need to make her friend miserable, too, eh?

Wow. What a Carl-like thing to say. It seemed Wheezer rubbed off on her. Now that was a scary thought. Silently she promised herself that the day she'd started to worry about allergies to things with five-syllable-names she'd get Libby to find someone to whack her. It was pretty amazing how, over the years, those three idiotic 'amigops' (and she still didn't know the story behind _that_) had become such a great factor in her life, that she actually referred to them when they were nowhere near in sight, she contemplated, a little peeved, for she certainly hadn't planned to end up as some twisted mutant of Wheezer- and Estevezness when she'd been a little girl and dreamt up her future life. But such were the side effects of fr…well, acquaintanceship, she supposed.

She followed Libby to the dance floor and tried to enjoy herself, but pretty soon it became blindingly obvious to her that neither hers nor Libby's heart were really in it. Repeatedly she had to shove boozed males off her best friend, because, in contrast to her, Libby had developed a _lot_ of curves over the years and the male population of the town definitely began to notice. It wasn't that she couldn't take care of herself – Libby was deadly with almost anything resembling a broom, stick or shovel in her hand – but it did get quite unnerving for Cindy to get pushed from side to side all the while some random guy tried to make his move on Libby. There weren't a lot of boys who actually attempted to get _her_ attention – she wasn't unattractive, but they didn't really know what to make of her with her killer right hook and her somewhat bitchy attitude. Plus, unbeknownst to her, her friends (excepting Libby) and the female half of Retroville, there was also the tacit agreement circulating through Retroville's locker rooms that she was as good as taken. Nobody really wanted to upset a guy who, whether he was aware of it or not right now, was capable to bring them to their demise in 300 differently flavored ways with just a push of a button.

Somewhere after the seventh or eighth song, Libby finally dropped the charade of having the time of her life and stated out of the blue:

" Cindy, girl…I ain't thinkin' I'm too good for him or something .It's just…"

Bemused, Cindy turned around at the sound of her best friend's voice. So she _had_ heard her? On catching the uncharacteristically distraught look on Libby's face, though, she almost felt sorry for what she'd said. Apparently she wasn't the only one who'd severe kinks to work out in the whole dating thing. What a waste of time, really, she thought to herself. Why don't we all go abstinent?

Libby's voice was barely audible in the midst of shouting voices and the upbeat music.

"Sometimes I wonder if we're right for each other." she admitted. "We're…two different types of shoes. He's into his little wonder world of crazed madness, alright, I'm into my stuff, music, fashion, you know what, and …it seems like our worlds never touch. I mean, I can never go out dancin' with Sheen, just like this, without him creating a huge commotion and wrecking the entire thing." A memory found its way back into her mind and she let out a fond chuckle. "Besides he really can't dance."

Cindy shook her head for she was still hung up on her next to last sentence. "Libby…the guy IS a commotion." she stated flatly." Remember your supposedly first date?"

Libby didn't seem too fond when she recalled _that_ memory. "When we ended up on the moon, because Jimmy was messin' with the time-space-cont-"

"Ya, ya, no need to drag Neutron into this." Cindy interrupted her with a small hiss. That memory was still a sore spot with _her_. But she decided to mind her own advice and came back to the topic at hand. "Remember the chaos when Sheen tried to organize things?"

Libby's face twisted a little. "Well…he tried, I guess." she said with a helpless shrug.

* * *

" …so from what I can deduce, the scan will have to wait a couple of hours, but then we can start playing the big guns, guys." Jimmy explained patiently to his friends and gestured to the extra set of screens and control devices he'd set up in the lab. He was eager to share his findings with his most trusted persons in the universe as soon as possible, even though he just had had to spend half an hour to calm Carl down after his messy arrival. Jimmy had lent him his hover car for the day and it seemed his friend had come across a particularly nasty wrong-way driver, judging on the few understandable stutters he'd gotten out of him. The poor boy had been a mess until Jimmy had had no other choice than to erase his memories of the past two hours.

"But Jimmy…" said mind-wiped friend spoke up cautiously. Whatever it was that Jimmy planned, it sounded dangerous. And somewhere inside his heart Carl still carried the faint hope that someday he'd be skilled enough to change Jimmy's mind about dangerous things and his readiness to indulge in them. "I don't understand. If that city has sunk into the sea, why are you searching for it? Surely you can get a flan elsewhere, too?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Fame, Carl, fame, not flan." he corrected. It seemed that brainwashing still had slight side-effects, even though he'd been as nicely about it as possible when he wiped Carl's memories. "Can you imagine the reaction, the…" His eyes glazed slightly over. "GLORY if we're the first to solve that mystery? A mystery that has been in the back of the minds of hundreds of generations? I'm talking about historical immortality here, gentlemen!"

Carl seemed unconvinced. "That's great…but I'm allergic to galore."

Jimmy slapped his forehead. Holy Heisenberg. This wasn't what he'd anticipated when he invited his friends over.

"GLORY, Carl. Glory. " he said flatly.

"But…" Carl still didn't seem to give up. "…what if your scan-thingy says that it doesn't exist? Or if you find things in the deep, dark, creepy, scary ocean that you never wanted to find?" His eyes widened. "Or things someone else doesn't want you to find?"

Jimmy raised his hands to pacify his friend, foreseeing that he was on the edge of panicking. "Don't worry, Carl! I've got it handled." he exclaimed. His eyes lit up as he realized he'd just got a chance to elaborate his scheme. "I'm not randomly scanning just any inch of the oceans. I got a hint from a very good friend of ours that lead me to extensive research and some 'borrowed' equipment from the facilities I work for, all in the interest of locating a special wave frequency emitted by a unique transportation device, which has no equal on the surface of Earth!"

Carl didn't look any wiser than before. But what to ask first? Which friend Jimmy referred to? What he meant with locating a ….a….transportation device? What this had to do at all with a sunken city?

Eventually he opted for the easiest of the three.

"Who's that good friend of ours, Jim?"

"April."The reply came very nonchalantly.

Carl seemed confused. "You mean that green, alien, Gorlockian girl we met in that scary game show? "

Jimmy was still in touch with her?

As far as Carl was concerned, all that remained from _that_ experience were the millions of TV channels they received now and creepy soap operas starring three-headed aliens who confessed their love for one another. He didn't even remember most of their allies' faces anymore…though he did feel a slight pang as he thought of Sugar Cube and how he'd had to leave her behind all those years ago.

"Yes." Jimmy confirmed his question. It amazed him that Carl had to take a double take as to figure out who April was. Apparently he had never considered that his friends wouldn't quite keep in touch with the other contestants as he did. He'd had some very fascinating conversations with the Brains during the past six years. But, unfortunately, he still hadn't gotten around developing an anti-brain freeze medicine to thank them for their generous sharing of their thoughts.

"She's an intergalactic ambassador now, thanks to the matrix generators we took off Meldar and every once in a while she's communicating news to me. Last month, she was representative for Planet Gorlock at an intergalactic cultural convention and it was there where she gathered this breathtaking piece of information that I'm about to present to you guys."

Carl seemed troubled by something entirely else. "Does…does Cindy know you're still chatting with April?" he asked fearfully, as though he expected the blonde to storm inside any second and create a commotion. For some reason, he couldn't exactly put his finger on it; there was a feeling of pain and horror associated to her name…in unusual amounts. As though something had just happened…

"No." Jimmy replied with a blank look. "Why would you…?" For a moment he was distracted by a beeping sound coming from one of the screens he'd positioned at their right and he rushed over to fix whatever it was that was seemingly malfunctioning. Carl glanced over to Sheen, who, up until now hadn't even uttered one word, which was quite unusual. But the Mexican just shrugged when he met Carl's gaze, before slumping down on Jimmy's lab seat again.

"Anyways, as I was saying…" Jimmy returned in a matter of seconds.

"It turns out that what we understood as 'Atlantis' all those centuries _wasn't_ in fact a fictional isle found and built on by humans, but actually a transport nodal point by an advanced alien species disguised as a human city- and by all means even populated with actual humans-, which eventually sank under mysterious circumstances when this species died out. April told me that a related species has plans to resurrect their technology after they'd made a spectacular finding of remains of one of these travelling devices. It's a fascinating technology, too – basically it links to your subconscious and your memories and allows you to travel infinitely faster and safer than anything we've dreamt of constructing yet to places you've already visited, by accessing a virtual reality that is temporarily created in your mind. "

His eyes shone with excitement, as he drew out a couple of folders from a shelf, all titled 'Atlantis'.

"April managed to transmit to me their findings and based on those revelations I was able to construct a scanning device which would pick up the signals that still must be emitted by this transportation centre. So you see, Carl…" Jimmy finished with a smile. "I'm not really gathering any other information of the oceans' grounds than the location of the signals' origin."

The silence that followed his words was almost deafening. He sighed.

He'd already tried to make himself as comprehensible as possible, but looking at Carl's overstrained expression it became painfully obvious, that it had been too much information at once. Guilt crept into his mind, as it did more often lately, when he caught himself getting slightly disappointed in his friends' lack of interest or knowledge in all those matters that he really cared about. Jimmy didn't even _want_ to think of them as inferior minds …it just happened against his will and he felt terribly _guilty_ about it at times. It'd never stood in between of them before, he told himself over and over again – but that was because he'd enjoyed it immensely to find unconditional admiration when he was a kid. Nowadays he found himself wishing rather than for praise that someone would listen to his findings with actual interest…actual comprehension.

Carl and Sheen would always be his _best_ friends in the world and nothing would change that…but it would be nice to have some other conversation partners as well. He was quite aware that the girls were infinitely brighter than his good mates, but it was obvious that Libby was just as much interested in science as Carl was in riding a monster truck through the Brazilian jungle, and Cindy… well, he never knew what to expect from _her_. One day she'd surprise him with a statement that clearly stemmed from broad expertise, the next day she'd turn around by putting on an air so indifferent to any of his achievements that he wondered if she ever really had cared for the subject at all. It was always a _sometimes_ with her. Sometimes she'd be a great support when she actually offered her help, sometimes she was the bane of his existence.

And then there was always the fact that she currently wanted to bite off his head.

It was for all those reasons that he looked secretly forward to the arrival of four transfer students from Pomona High (which had been founded in another state on behalf of supporting individuals like him with strong interest in sciences soon after he'd quit Pomona College) who would accompany him for the sake of scientific exchange for the next sixth months. They'd decided to come over already during summer's vacation to get familiar with him as soon as possible, before the last year of high school began. Since his dad had vaporized their entire holiday savings under circumstances that had never been clarified (and his mother refused to take any money Jimmy earned with his inventions), he hadn't objected to their plans. The first four weeks they weren't going to be around anyways, for they wanted to see a little bit of Texas before they started to work. This gave him enough time for operation 'Atlantis' which he was determined to conduct with his 'old' circle of friends.

Carl found his voice again.

"But why do _we_ have to be the ones to find that transportation…nodal…point?" he inquired. He hadn't really understood half of what Jimmy said, but he had the feeling that he was going to be involved in something he definitely was not going to like.

"I told you already, Carl, if we're able to locate Atlantis, we're not only going down in men's history, but we'll actually discover something of _intergalactic_ impact! " Jimmy's voice grew somewhat quieter. "Besides…" He didn't really know how to express it. "I…I really want to do this with you guys, just like we did when we were little. One last time, you know?"

Carl tilted his head." What do you mean, Jim?"

Jimmy fidgeted slightly. He'd never been the one with great social skills. "Well guys…there is only one year left till we graduate. And then what? College. Jobs. Careers. We won't have time to go on adventures like we used to." Their number had already decreased enormously when he'd been incorporated in this silly scientific network of facilities across the states.

"I just want us to have one last _real_ adventure." Jimmy continued with a hint of nostalgia." With just the five of us. No government or scientific institute or economical company glancing over my shoulder and crediting themselves for everything. If we really are to go separate ways one day, I want to…" He seemed at a loss for words. "I wanna _share_ this glory with you. All of you. So that we all have something _great_ to remember when we look back at these days once we're all settled in our new lives. "

When he'd been nothing but a little boy genius he'd thought that it would always be like this…he and his friends going on adventures, hanging out, laughing together and doing all that what had made his childhood so wonderful. You always know that things will change, yet you never believe it when you're a child. But now Jimmy had realized that sooner or later they _would_ drift apart. He'd never touched the Crono Arch again after that disaster at Libby's twelfth birthday party, but looking back on what it had revealed before the whole megalomanium incident, it became obvious that they'd live in different worlds one day. After all, how were a llama breeder and a super model supposed to spend much time together, one spending his days on an extensive farm, the other travelling from metropolis to metropolis? How was a scientist who earned every single Noble prize in existence in the matter of a few years supposed to have a lot of topics to talk about with them- logically assuming that he didn't have much of time for anything unrelated to his studies?

And what about the girls? He knew Cindy had aspirations to pursue a career as a lawyer, which was yet another entirely different area that touched none of their spheres in the slightest (well given the fact that none of them would get into a serious conflict with the law). The only chance he saw for some of his friends to reconnect was that Libby and Sheen would stumble into each other somewhere along the way. She'd always been into music, lifestyle and fashion and if Sheen was really meant to become a male model, then they'd definitely have something in common.

Maybe he was simply overanalyzing this. But then again, he hadn't come this far by _stopping_ to think. It was scary, thinking, that they'd all split up sooner or later. He didn't like to admit it, but the prospect was actually scary.

Meanwhile, Carl considered his words with a thoughtful expression. "Wow Jim. That sounds pretty deep."

Jimmy felt slightly uncomfortable with the silence that ensued after those words. They weren't here to mull over the inevitable, he reminded himself. There was work to do. And fame in sight. What the heck was he doing here, moping about when there was so much to do yet?

"Whatever." he thus replied and turned around to work on his scanner some more, when it _finally_ registered to his brain, that Sheen hadn't said….well, _anything_ yet. At all.

"What's wrong with you, Sheen?" he asked the apathetically staring boy in front of him. "You've been down here for a total of fifteen minutes and three seconds and I'm still in possession of all my vitally important organs."

Sheen barely looked up at him from his seat. " Sorry Jim…" Listlessly he poked Jimmy's arm. "There."

Jimmy frowned. "Sheen…"

Suddenly, Sheen threw his hands up in the air, conveniently knocking off a few folders from Jimmy's desks. Vox had a _lot_ to clean when they were gone.

"I CAN'T HELP IT." Sheen exclaimed loudly, as though everything he'd bottled up till now suddenly resurfaced with doubled force. "Libby canceled our date tonight!"

Carl gasped. He didn't really know why, but it seemed like a dramatic thing to do. Blissfully unaware of his efforts, Sheen rambled on.

"We were going to go to the cinema, we were going to watch an AWESOME movie…but she said NOT TONIGHT!" he fell back into his seat with a loud sigh.

Awkward silence fell between them. Jimmy and Carl exchanged glances, neither of them knowing what to say. They never did when Sheen got upset. Whatever soothed him one day, riled him up the next. However, for the sake of maintaining the conversation, Jimmy inquired:

"So…?"

But that proved to be one of the things to rile Sheen up.

"SO?" he gasped. "SO? You ask me _SO_? This is a disaster!" The boy leapt forwards and grabbed Jimmy's shoulders to shake common sense into him. "She's out dancing, _without me_! In a club. Full of hormonally challenged GUYS. " Sheen slid back into his seat.

" I wanna be the only hormonally challenged guy in her presence." he muttered dejectedly.

Jimmy rubbed his arm, which was quite painfully smarting. Who'd have thought that Sheen would actually get stronger as the years passed? Well…but then again, Jimmy'd never been exactly anything that could be remotely classified as strong.

"But you guys go out every Thursday." he said with confusion. He was missing something here. "Why would she ditch you to go out all the same?"

Sheen scoffed and his expression darkened. " Because of CINDY, silly!" He shook his head as though in pain." I always knew she had it in for me! Didn't I? DIDN'T I?"

"But why would two _girls_ go out with each other …?" Carl was bewildered.

He blushed as sudden realization struck him. "_Oh_.Hehehe." Awfully subtle as always, he looked down at his shoes.

This had been a naughty thought.

Wow. He'd just had a naughty thought. He wondered if this was one of the things you were supposed to tell your mom about.

Jimmy and Sheen stared at him, a little disturbed at the implications of his behavior. (Not to mention that, had Carl been right in his assumption, both of them would be let out of the loop. Which they really didn't like to think about.)

"Carl, get your mind out of the gutter!"

Sheen blinked. "He. That was weird. Never thought _I'd_ be the one to say that." He shook his head to get rid of the thought. "NOOO, they're not into girly-girly-somes. Libby said they needed a 'girls' night' to raise Cindy's spirits or something. Seems like Miss Firecracker has gotten her panties in a knot because of **something** _**someone**_ did to her AGAIN."

Jimmy chuckled nervously and tried to scoot away from Sheen as subtly as possible. Word got out faster than he'd hoped it would. Upsetting a girl was like poking into a wasp's nest. One little mistake set a _whole_ swarm of problems into motion. Warily he waited for Sheen to start accusing him more directly.

" But DAMNED if I know what happened!"

The genius relaxed instantly. So it hadn't got around yet. He didn't want to know what would happen if Sheen found out that he was sorta…kinda…a little bit responsible for his friend's lack of a date. Not to mention that the last two times it'd become public just what he'd done, every girl he'd passed by had given him the evil eye. Even those, who couldn't stand Cindy the least – apparently what he'd done was a major crime so severe that it reassembled the situation of like and dislike in completely unpredictable ways. There were relations among the girls he just couldn't ever, not even after years of intensive study, hope to understand.

"So now I'm here." Sheen continued his rant. "Alone. Rejected. Cast out. Spending my evening with two _guys_ instead of a libbylicious chick. ULTRA LORD." His head dropped melodramatically to his chest. It was pathetic really. What was he supposed to do with them? Play video games? Well that didn't sound so bad and they DID have a lot of Purple Flurps stashed in Jimmy's fridge, but then again, there was the fact that Carl and Jimmy didn't have any boo-

-boogers. Err. Ya. Quickly, Sheen decided to simply go back to moping. Somehow he half expected Libby to find out about the direction his thoughts had been taking and she never liked it when he referred (even appreciatively) to her...corporal equipment.

Back to screaming. Screaming was easy. And less dangerous.

"This is the greatest disaster since our first date, a DISASTER, I tell you!"

"Oh I wouldn't say that Sheen…" Jimmy tried to cheer his friend up. However, albeit being a genius, he'd never quite gotten the concept of when to understate and when to simply keep your mouth shut. It really was more complicated than quantum physics, though, to cut him some slack.

"What about last summer? Or Valentine's Day? Or the air-open concert at the mall? Or the incident with the psychic and the octop-"

Both Carl's and Sheen's head jerked up at the mention of _that_ memory.

"HEY, DON'T GO THERE!" they screamed simultaneously and Sheen added promptly:

"Dude! That was disturbing."

Jimmy had to shiver himself. "Ya. Sorry about that." he said, somewhat abashed.

"Anyways…" Carl distracted them from their disgust. "Wasn't your first date when we all got sucked to the surface of the moon, because Jimmy wouldn't listen to Cindy about the time space cont-

"Ya,ya, no need to drag Vortex into this, Carl, _we_ all remember. " Jimmy quickly interrupted. It was one of the greatest blows to his pride yet and he really didn't like to think about. On catching Carl's somewhat amused gaze, he defended himself: "But hey, it wasn't my entire fault. He already screwed up the basics!"

Sheen was outraged. He really didn't deserve that one. He deserved a lot of things, even unpleasant ones (according to his teachers especially those), but he really, really didn't deserve _this_.

"I _wouldn't_ have, if it hadn't been for all of YOU!" he reminded them and pointed accusingly at his two best friends.

Jimmy and Carl raised their eyebrows at him.

Well…

"Don't you guys remember?"

* * *

.

_A/N: Yeah, quite a filler, but things will get more interesting, I promise. Yeah, that Atlantis bit was a little cheesy, but it needed to be done. Y'know, story line and all that shizz. I was actually going to add a flashback to Sheen's date, but it would've doubled the length of the chapter...so it'll be part of the next. I could always picture Cindy as quite a dangerous driver...that line of Libby's in LOV is just too much GOLD as not to be used ;). Tell me what you think, pretty please._


	4. Slapped by a fish

_Chapter Three- Slapped by a fish_

_

* * *

_

_A/N: Sorry for being such a lazy updater. I appreciate everybody who's still sticking to this so very much. =) But hey, I'm just writing this for the shits anyway ;). So the first part are Sheen's lousy preparations for his first date. That means it's a FLASHBACK, alright? :D_

Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron or anything related to the show.

* * *

Today was the day. The great day.

The glorious day.

The DAY.

Today all of his 'hard' work of the past three years would finally pay off.

„Okay, let's see…"

Clad in paint-splattered sweats and an equally splattered T-Shirt that had been turquoise once, Sheen flipped himself on his bed sheets and ignored the sound of squeaking plastics which indicated that he'd just sat on something that wasn't supposed to be sat on. His dad had made him help repaint the living-room, but quickly sent him back to his room when it became obvious that Sheen and pots of paint had a strangely destructive potential if put together.

Sheen certainly didn't complain though – he'd won more time to prepare the greatest 'today' of all todays. This naturally started with checking the check list. _Her_ check list.

He narrowed his eyes in a business-like fashion and began to skim through.

"**Date: 24****th**** August**."

He glanced at his Ultra Lord calendar (12, 95 dollars plus shipping, now with an extra 13th Ultra month added!).

"Check."

**Time to check the almighty, all-knowing checklist (**_**courtesy of Libby aka the one you don't wanna mess around with)**_**: 5.30 p.m.**

"Uhm…long hand, small hand, long hand? Errr….LONG HAND ON 30! Check."

**Wearing clean underwear?**

"Uh…" For a moment Sheen seemed to contemplate something, but shook his head quickly. It was a Thursday after all.

„Check. "

**Brushed teeth?**

He drew out a little mirror that had been stuffed in a secret pocket inside his sweats (the guys really didn't need to know about him possessing this slightly-kinda-sorta- not-manly object) and breathed against its surface. When the glass glazed over, he sniffed it with squinted eyes, before leaning back in satisfaction.

"_Check_."

**Looking good?**

Oh puh-leeeze. When wasn't he EL HOMBRE? Sheen winked at his reflection in the mirror, a little puzzled that it winked right back at him, but hey, it was a free country.

"Definitly _check_."

**Dressed?**

"With tux and tie, baby! That is after I showered**…**CHECK."

**Wearing pants?**

"...check."

**Not**** overdressed for a quiet date out in the open? **_**(That means **__**casual**__** and **__**not**__** embarrassing, Sheen)**_

He scrunched up his nose. "A tuxedo's a fancy, **casual** thing, isn't it? Check."

**No strange odors?**

"Eh…yep. Check. "

**All pockets emptied? This includes: action figures/any food that is beyond its expiration date/used tissues/tasers/ anything that came out of Jimmy's lab/anything remotely related to Ultra Lord etc.**

Oh damn.

He hadn't seen this one coming.

Why'd they keep spoiling his fun? Jimmy was always all 'Oo, oo, Sheen, don't touch nothing, no, nol', Carl would rat him out ALL THE FREAKING TIME, whenever he tried to touch the high-voltage thingies in Jimmy's lab with a big 'DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, SHEEN' sign plastered on top, the ever so gentle Cindy would crush his foot with a massive iron door every time he tried to sneak a peek inside the girls' locker room and now Libby, his sweet Libbylicious was depriving him of his…his…TOYS.

But it was no use. If Libby wanted him to get rid of his wonderful toys, then he would have to get rid of them. She could be scaaary. But strangely attractive. Yet striiiict. And still somewhat of a turn on.

It was rather complicated.

Shaking his head, Sheen rummaged through the pockets of his tuxedo.

"Well... let's see : taser…Ultra Lord in a red suit…the Cheese Ray –have to give that back someday-…a meatball I borrowed from Carl last year…Ultra Lord with Ultra Lady, edition#23, Poultra!- the plastic action figure…, Jimmy's credit card- _really_ have to give that back-, a lock of Libby's hair and…" Disappointedly he tossed the 'forbidden' items on his bed. "…'Thirty-three ways NOT to piss off your girlfriend'."

With a final check on his list he then slumped down on a chair and put his feet on top of his table, taking a little sip of Purple Flurp.

"You know, Liversnap…" he addressed the elderly twonkie that jumped on his lap attentively. "This is _the_ night. Tonight I'll come back as a _man_!"

He popped a lollipop in his mouth, satisfied with the perspective. Manliness was good. Manliness was Ultra Lordish. Manliness was…pretty darn manly. Liversnap, however, squeaked loudly, scandalized by the news. Sheen noticed his pet's sudden negative disposition and corrected his mistake hurriedly:

"No, not in that way, Liversnap, you dirty little thing! I meant that tonight I'll become a _manly_ man by taking my chicky babe Libby on a real date for the first time. Without a whining Carl around to spoil the mood, without Jimmy and Cindy being…well … themselves…or a strange old lady beating me with a steam cleaner…or Libby's mom beating me with a steam cleaner, or, or…"

Stroking the twonkie he went on listing all the incidents that got into his and Libby's way during those last few years.

"..or Jimmy blowing up anything with his inventions… well, that or _me_ blowing anything up with his inventions, for that matter…or a crazed teacher dragging me back into detention… or a crazy villain plotting for world _domenience_ or whatever it is called…or a last-minute announcement of the yearly Ultra Lord Marathon…yeah, that was a great one…or her father getting sick after accepting a plate of self-baked cookies by…what's his face?... " Sheen shook his head and turned his attention back to his twonkie. "WHATEVER Liversnap, the most important awesomeness about today is that there will be NO "He shuddered briefly. "And I repeat, NO Cindy Vortex bossing me around to treat _her best friend properly, you idiot!_" His right fist crashed into his left palm.

Liversnap squealed at the sight of his flawless imitation of the bad-tempered blonde. With a chuckle, Sheen went on: "No, tonight it's just me and my lady. She ordered me to prepare at least one proper date, so that's what I'll do! And believe me, nothing shall get in the way of our glorious devotion for each other, or my name shall not be Sheen-" he chased Liversnap off his lap and began to rise. "-Juarerra…ULTRA...ESTEVEZ! ESTEVEZ, ESTEVEZ, FOR THE WIN-"

"GET OFF THE TABLE, SON!" his dad's voice rang suddenly through the (closed!) door. Sheen blinked in confusion, looked down at the distance between his feet and the ground and jumped down.

"Oh…heh. THANKS DAD!"

"NO PROBLEM!"

"And now-", a rare moment of clarity washed over Sheen's face. "I _really_ should tell Jimmy you're _still_ living here, Liversnap, shouldn't I?"

The twonkie turned his back on him.

"Whatever, dude. Anyway, as I was saying, I shall now check one last thing, before the dressing for the greatest date EVER is about to start-my _inbox_!" Swiftly he lunged for his chair again and began opening mails he'd received in the course of the day.

"Hmmm…Carl and….Carl…unimportant, I …Carl again….Ca—DUDE is the guy trying to flood my inbox, or something? Spam…Carl….more spam….hey, sticky tape's on sale again! This one's from the Ultra Lord actor who put up a restraining order against m-HOLY CHEESE, what is that?" he suddenly yelled out and pointed at a dreadful name, that had appeared on screen. "CINDY FREAKING VORTEX? Why, oh why is fate so cruel?" Sheen wailed before opening her mail with shaking hands. He had promised Libby to be civil to her best friend after all …even though Cindy obviously didn't think she had to return the favor.

Having a girlfriend who (in endless gentleness and patience) happened to befriend a dreadful, violent person was hard. But the perspective of getting rid of Cindy's malicious ways in a few years when they'd be all grown up and living on their own (preferably faaar away from said 'best friend' with an occasional 'Merry Christmas' card sent to her now and then ) was what kept him strong.

…more or less.

_Hey there, Freak, _were the words that introduced the lovely message. _So I heard you're taking Libby on a date tonight. On a __real__ one. (and you better stick to that plan, if you know what's good for you.)_

_Let me just tell you that I had to listen to Libby going on about it for the last freaking seven days. If I never have to hear your name again, that's just fine by me. But don't get any fancy ideas, she wasn't gushing over your so-called 'qualities' (which is just ew), but listing every single possibility of things going wrong. Which is why I'm laying my cards on the table right now._

_First off: I was pretty tolerant of you guys' relationship till now. Believe me, I wasn't overjoyed, but Libby seems happy with you, so I resigned to it. This and the fact we're kind of friends spared you the talk till now, however, the situation has changed: You're taking her out on a real date, making your boyfriend-girlfriend status __**official**__. Memorize this information well, Ultra Dork, because if you don't feel up to this, you'd do better cancelling your date right now. If you think you can manage it (and I will pass on commenting that) then read on:_

_As official boyfriend of Libby you WILL obey these rules as though your life depended on it (which it most likely does):_

_Treat her like a queen__. She is the girl of the relationship, thus your master and your sovereign, while you…well I won't go as far as to assume you're the man of it, but you are the weaker, less important part, got it? That means specifically: nothing that threatens her health in any way (yes, I do know you, and yes that applies particularly to Neutron's inventions), nothing that upsets her even the slightest, no rudeness, tardiness, sloppiness or verbal objection to any of her wishes. The latter, however, does NOT apply on occasions where she gets crazy for her musical needs and is about to spent her entire money on CDs that will already be 'out' in three weeks. In this case you WILL do anything to keep her in line. Feel honored I confer this responsibility upon you when I'm not around and make it your damn business not to fail. Because if you do…but you won't, right? _

_No cheating_._ Don't even __**think**__ of laying eyes on any other girl but Libby. Kissing, Flirting and dating are right out. In fact, if I hear the slightest rumor, a whisper in the wind, the faintest suspicious story that your mind was on another woman, you will wish you were never, and I repeat, NEVER born. For your information: I learnt Tai Chi, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, a bit of Kung Fu and various other useful martial arts. Your loyalty or your life. I won't compromise. _

_Never make her cry.__ If I ever have Libby crying at my shoulder over you, if I ever have to comfort her because of some stupid, insensitive thing __**you've**__ done to her…_

**I will castrate you.**

_No funny business.__ I don't care if your daddy already talked this through with you and told you it's all natural and okay or something. Here's reality, my friend: If you feel your teenage hormones taking over, __**leave**__. You won't do anything she'd feel ashamed to tell me or __**you**__ feel I would not approve of. One slip up, one little lapse …and the same conditions as above will apply._

_Last but not least…__ I am Libby's best friend. That means for YOU, you will want to get on my good side. Fall out of my favor – and you're __**nothing**__. Tough chance for you._

_So make some efforts to get my approval, don't get me upset and prove to me that there is no better guy for Libby I could approve of. Libby may be your queen, but from this day on __**I**__ am the one who __**makes**__ your fate ._

_Perhaps you've been under the illusion that it takes you the sacrifice of putting up with me a few years till you've smitten her well enough to leave me behind. Well, think twice, buddy. I was here first. __**Mine**__ is the legitimate claim. There are not one, but three women to win over when you woo for the affection of a girl: Her mother, her best friend and _then_ the girl herself. Keep this in mind and perhaps you won't be single when autumn comes. _

_For now this is all you must know. Make sure Libby doesn't call me complaining about you tonight. And don't breathe a word of this message's content to her, if you know what's good for you. _

_I'll be watching you!_

_-Cindy _

1,2,3…

"…damn."

Sheen slumped back in his seat, eyes wide open. His entire body felt numb. Liversnap jumped on his head, but he didn't even notice. His eyes were glued to the message on screen, never blinking.

A silent minute passed, neither moving.

Just then an old lady passed by the Estevez household. A small smile was visible on her wrinkled face, her eyes glowed with inner peace. She had just been at the park, watching children play and feeding pigeons. There there was something about the joy in the pigeons' eyes that warmed her heart and since her children had left her one after the other, some of them not even caring to tell her she'd become a grandmother…

"_**NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"**_

That was when she heard the horrible cry coming from the inside of the house at the corner. A long howl followed, then another cry and another, turning the noises into a true _symphony_ of pain, despair and…_unspeakable horrors_.

The old lady gasped as she caught on some words: "…VIOLENT….CRUEL….HELP…. TORTURE….CASTRATE ME!...WHY, OH WHY..."

Her face drained out of all color when she heard a deafening crash. Shrieking, she ran down the street, leaving the dreadful house behind. Little did she know that it was the same house, where an eleven-year old boy with a purple mask had tried to attack her once with a broom in an attempt to impress a pretty, dark-skinned girl ,many years ago.

Meanwhile Sheen rubbed his aching head inside the trap of doom, dazed by his collision with a cupboard. Numerous Ultra Lord action figures laid around him, poking into his rips and back. He grimaced weakly.

At least he had calmed down a bit again.

"Crazy, women…" he muttered and took Baby Ultra Lord out of his mouth. "Threatening to do…horrible…_horrible_ things to me…and why? Is it me, Liversnap? Is it ME?"

Instead of a response, the bad, bad sound of a watch pronouncing that yet another hour had gone by caught his attention and sent him into further distress.

"6'o clock?" Sheen yelled hysterically and jumped up to his feet. How was that even possible? Did he really read/freak out/hurt himself that slowly? He was supposed to meet Libby in one hour for a late picnic on the riverside and he hadn't even started combing, showering, dressing, getting distracted and reminding himself to focus, yet! In fact, all he had achieved was talking Carl into getting the flowers for him, checking the check list, getting scared out of his mind by his girlfriend's best friend and putting all the fancy clothes on his bed. Not to mention he needed to pick up the full picnic basket he ordered before six thirty, when all the shops closed!

This wasn't good, not at all. Nobody believed he would be able to pull off a great date for his girlfriend, not even his best friends or said girlfriend herself! He wanted to show them. He needed to.

But how?

"HOW?" he yelled and covered his eyes with his hands. His chicky babe Libby was one of a kind. He needed to impress her at least _once_ to keep her around, that was for sure. (It was also what 'How to impress the ladies, volume 3' advised). After all she was freaking beautiful and talented and clever and gentle and cool and BEAUTIFUL and…well…she was that kind of girl, you wouldn't even trade for a hundred Beautiful Gorgeous' !(… though it would be totally awesome to possess such an amount of hot chicks in leather suits.) He couldn't disappoint his Libby…what was a super hero without a super-heroine after all?

Ten minutes long he basked in self-pity. Ten minutes that he needed to realize that perhaps the best plan was to get IMMEDIATELY started!

But before he could put this unusual, ingenious idea to action – his instant messenger announced an incoming IM.

"AW, c'mon!"

Sheen hasted over to his computer to get rid of the person who seemingly tried to ruin his life.

**CarlitoTheLlama**_**: Hey Sheen what's up?**_, he read, with a cold feeling burning at the pit of his stomach as he recognized the username. _Carl…_

Tough chance getting rid of _that_ one.

UltraSheenRULEZYAALL_: NOTHING, go away!_ _GOOO I TELL YA! _

Well, it was harsh, but necessary.

_**Have you forgotten to take your medicine again?**_

Sheen suppressed a howl of frustration.

_NO! Just GO! Heh…that rhymed…._

_**Yeah. Yeah it did. Anyway, look, I kind of need your help …**_ he blinked disbelievingly at his screen.

_What? You need __**my**__ help? Carl, this is your amigo __**Sheen**__, you sure you didn't want to talk to Jimmy?_

_**YEAH… well…no, he's creepy at the moment. Very. I think the usual happened.**_

_The usual? Again? Dude, this is like the third time this week!_

_**Yeah. And I'd rather not…ask **__**him**__**. Besides, you're the lady's man and I need advice in girl matters…**_

That was all that was needed to break Sheen's _iron_ will. Flattered and with a huge grin on his face, he forgot about all his worries, sat down and typed unhurriedly:

_That's about right! I sweep them off their feet and wipe the floor of smelly manliness with their girly floweriness! So tell me, what can I do to get Wheezer-boy a fine chica of his own?_

_**Ahem well…I signed up on this dating site, y'know and…**_

_STOP . RIGHT . THERE . A dating site? Caaarl! What did I tell you?_

…_**that I am attractive and manly enough to get a girlfriend without the help of shady social networks?**_

Sheen snickered. "I'm hilarious."

_Exactly. Dude, even JIMMY doesn't steep that low. And the guy isn't only desperate, but also a tech-freak per definition!_

_**Well, but Jimmy has weird preferences! He was crushing on one of the friendliest girls in school just to go for the most abusive one in the end? I mean—**_

Sheen was about to answer truthfully to that when he felt a memory stir in the back of his mind…and recalled the _orders_ he had just received.

_Carl, we uh…shouldn't talk about him and __**this**__ when he's not around. Remember when he accidentally hacked our computers and listened in our conversations a month ago? He wouldn't speak to us for two days!_

_**Oh. Yes, I remember that. And he chased us down the park with his rocket. There was this rock…and this horrible little kid…I swear my scapula is still hurting!**_

_BAAABY!_

_**Am not!**_

_ARE TOO!_

_**AM NOT!**_

_ARE T-_

_**I thought you wanted to help me with….with…**_

_Oh right, the girls. So what did ya wanna know, my friend? The Sheenster has answers for everyone…even for the desperate dating site users._

_**HEY! I…well, whatever, you see…as I said I just signed up there and I wondered…Sheen am I a bad person if I fake my age and pretend to be older?**_

_Ooooh….you have your eyes on a college girl? Carl, I didn't know you had it in you! But, DUDE, they expect you to lie!_

_**REALLY?**_

_Duh! Have you ever heard of anyone who said the truth and nothing but the truth on those sites?_

_**I guess not…**_

_Thought so! So how is she? Nudge, nudge…_

_**Well…she's quite a lot older than me, beautiful, gentle, friendly….**_

_Yeah, yeah, spare the lovey-dovey details-DID YA TALK TO HER ALREADY? Gimme more stuff to __**work**__ with, buddy!_

_**Well…err…no. Not really...online, that is. But you see she set up her account during a hardship between her and her husband years ago and hasn't been active ever since…However, I figured that…**_

Sheen's right eye began to twitch. _Errr..Carl…did you just type her __**husband**__?_

_**Wha-NO! I…she's in college and studies…LLAMASCIENCE! YES. It was love at the first llama-spit!**_

_, this is about who I think it is about, isn't it?_

_**No, I-**_

…_and that's why you didn't wanna talk to Jimmy about it, right?_

_**No, I TOLD you the usual hap-**_

_You're STILL pining after her?_

_**Sheen, I…**_

_You need therapy. Badly._

_**Sh—**_

_Wait till I tell Jimmy…his face will be all scared and disgusted! Awesome!_

_**No, She—**_

_This is classic. Sick, but classic._

_**Listen…**_

_You realize it'd be illegal to do stuff with her? _

_**Wha-?**_

_Sucks to be underage, doesn't it?_

_**FINE LAUGH AT ME AND MY VULNERABLE HEART! I'M OUT OF HERE!**_

_**CarlitoTheLama has signed off**_

Sheen fell back in his chair, laughing. "The guy's crazy! Absolutely crazy! And they call me, ME with my sweet, wonderful Libby, insane!"

With an amount of sensible caution, though, he blocked his account from receiving IMs as he wasn't entirely sure that Carl would stay offended the whole night. He was not very keen on playing therapist for the 'turned-on-by-older-women anonymous' group tonight…another chuckle escaped his throat.

Liversnap, the good ol' music-hating soul seemed to join in his laughter. However there was something that disturbed the homely peace, some memories the mention of 'Libby' had brought back …he couldn't quite place his finger on it, but there was definitely _something_…

Didn't she ask him for a cherry-flavored chewing gum yesterday? Yes.

She did.

She really did.

OH GOD she HAD asked him for cherry flavored gum. And what had happened then? His Libby had to starve because of his cherry-flavored- gum-less state! WHY OH CHERRY FL- He frowned.

That couldn't be it, for he was pretty sure he gave it to her …

"DANG! The GREATEST DATE EVAAAR!"

_Okay. Start to panic-NOW._

Anxiously the boy stormed through his room, stopped in the middle, tried to remember what he was just going to do, remembered, and began to storm again. This procedure repeated itself for about three times, before he crashed into yet another cupboard. At least it was a bookshelf this time…ah the good, old ,deserted, EMPTY bookshelf.

"DANG!" he shouted nonetheless, rubbed his bloody nose and dashed off to the bathroom to shower. He had only 45 minutes left till the date, meaning he needed to shower and pick up the picnic basket in all of 15 minutes!

NOTHING had to go wrong now.

But of course it did. As if there was a force trying to torture him, Sheen accidentally rubbed shampoo in his eyes as soon as he started to shower. Now, he really wasn't one to be picky about little details, but…IT BURNED. Badly!

"Ow….ooooowww…..OW OH MAN, WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME?" he cried and reached for a towel on the opposite wall. Unfortunately he had overestimated his own balance and so he found himself quickly on the ground – still blindfolded and with a nasty pain spreading all over his body.

Too add to his bad luck, a little yellow plastic duck fell on his back – squeaking.

The only good thing was that he'd quit peeing in the shower six months ago, he told himself quietly. _(It'd been a hard and exhausting process, but in the end…)_

When he finally got back to his room, dripping wet and bruised, but CLEAN he dressed quickly …or tried to. The shirt, trousers and underwear were no problem…but when he got to the jacket…

"WHO SWITCHED OFF THE LIGHT?" Sheen yelled, his head hopelessly stuck in the tuxedo's sleeve. In an attempt to untangle himself again, he stepped backwards, tripped over Liversnap and fell with a loud 'thump' on his bed, where he started to wrestle like a maniac. His hair got stuck somewhere between the buttons, his nose was inside a pocket and his hands…dear Ultra Lord he had no idea where his hands were.

Just then another of his friends decided to add to his misery:

The phone rang.

Freaking _rang_. Right now, right here.

"WHY won't you all leave me alone _once_? I said I was sorry for breaking the two-hundred year old vase-thingy!" Sheen's muffled voice sounded from the inside of the black monster over his head, as he jumped on one leg into the direction he thought to hear the phone ring from.

After a fight of twenty seconds, he managed to release his left arm and grabbed the phone hectically.

"YEAH?" he asked, panting.

"_Hey Sheen, glad you're at home…" _Jimmy's strained voice replied.

Jimmy? Now?

What the cheese? Didn't anybody in this town but him have a life?

"_Carl told me he was in the middle of a pulmonary infarction when I asked him what he was up to, so I figured I'd call you. You WON'T believe it, but-"_

"Eh, yeah Jimmy, I'm sure you have to tell me something VERY important…" Sheen interrupted him abruptly "…and believe me, dude, there's **nobody** who's more willing to listen, but _not now_! I…"

"…_tells ME that at this configuration it would influence the time-space continuum negatively! Yeah, nowadays, it's easy to be a critic, when all you have to do is read your school- assigned physics book in order to persuade others that you have actual skills! I conducted five test-runs at half volume and was there any disturbance? No! If you double those outcomes, with some reasonable side products, there's still no threat at full volume! So I give her, yes, can you believe it, I actually _gave_ her my precious calculations and…"_

"Jimmy, I really don't…"

"…_she skims through it, points at the third paragraph and has the nerve to tell me I didn't consider that it's not possible to achieve those ideal conditions in reality, thus a run at full volume would have the atrocious consequences she had estimated. Can you believe it? And I did everything scientifically possible to refute her hypothesis, but do you think she listened? Instead she accused me of being too bent on the theory to…"_

"Dude, I don't even know what you're talking about! And I don't wanna know! My date with-"

"…_to realize that there are secular factors to take care of, too! I told her she was wrong, she yelled at me that I was a pompous wiseacre, I yelled back at her that it was my damn right to be a wiseacre, since those were MY lab and MY inventions, not to mention __**I'm**__ the certified genius…"_

"Yeah, yeah and then she punched you and you guys broke up for the third time this week, drama, blood and tears, yadda yadda yadda…I really need to hang up Jimmy!"

"_What are you talking about, Sheen? We're not even together. Have you been near my Reality-Meddler again?"_

Sheen sighed exasperatedly. _For Libby's and his sakes!_

"My bad, of course you two are _totally_ not together. Silly Sheen. It was just the usual, I get it.", he said monotonously and accidentally ripped a button off his expensive outfit.

"_The usual? What do you…Ah whatever, as I was saying, then she was all: Well it was you who invited me over in the first place! and I answered: Well, sorry for my temporary lapse of judgment! and she just turned on her heel and cried: Great! Don't bother showing me the way out, I'm outta here all by myself!, I cried back: Don't let the door hit you! and then she was gone, so I'm down here all alone for two hours already, going through the calculations AGAIN and…_

"_JEEZ_, Jimmy, what do you even want from me? Am I supposed to judge the freaking calculations or WHAT?" To emphasize his point, Sheen tried to wave his arms, which unfortunately resulted in another ripped off button. Dang.

"_NO, I'm not suicidal! I just conjectured that you…ah I don't know, but you've been going out with Libby for such a long time that I reckoned even someone like __**you **__must have caught on to certain quirks of the female species in the course of the years…"_

"Hey!"

"…_and I just can't seem to bring her behavior and my reaction to it in a fitting equation. I mean from the logical point of view I'm of superior intellect and thus should not be affected by her immature behavior, but I am and I can't seem to fit this occurrence in any common tenet of human rivalry, so…"_

A snort rang from the inside of the poor mistreated tuxedo jacket.

"C'mon, you haven't figured it out yet? Now, I'm not really the sharpest crayon in the box…"

"_Indeed."_

"…but puh-leeze! Isn't it obvious? Isn't the way you two flirt, get jealous when the other one's showing interest in another person an obvious give-away? Or when you ignore Carl's compulsive gorge-attacks in the Candy Bar while everyone else is already grossed out beyond belief, because you're in an argument? (OR , if that's not good enough for you already, the way _I'm_ currently the sensible one of us, I mean what the _heck_?)"

"_We never did flirt with each other! And you're not being sensible, Sheen. I've got scientific proof that you're not capable of acting reasonably."_

"Sure keep telling that yourself, buddy. You'll all be SO sorry when I RULE THE UNIVERSE AND FEED

YOU CRITICS NOTHING BUT THREE-DAYS-OLD PUDDING!"

"…_Your point?" _Jimmy asked dryly and Sheen's cheeks colored faintly.

"It'll come, I tell ya, oh it'll COME. However, to end this little chat: whether you admit to it or not, you're totally in a relationship. "

"_I object to that! I…We…granted we did get closer a few times, but your theory is highly improbable and…well …ah, anyhow, __**fact is**__ my calculations are flawless! I checked everything, Vox checked it twice, even Goddard looked it over and she could have had the decency to admit at least once that I succeeded, but NO that'd be too much to ask for wouldn't it? Sometimes I wonder…"_

At this point Sheen blended all noises out as it seemed there was a light at the end of the sleeve. With _precise_ planning and _uttermost_ caution he untangled his other arm _heroically_, raised it _triumphantly_ up in the air and let a little ecstatic yelp. He had _finally_ managed to dress the jacket the way it was supposed to be worn! Success, success! Now the best date EVER could get started!

On recalling his friend's latest words, however, his face fell again a bit.

"Whatever, dude! If you don't wanna listen to the Sheen…" he scoffed at Jimmy, who was still rambling on, and put his phone next to one of his beloved action-figures. "Talk to the Ultra Lord."

"…_and do you remember that time, when…."_

Rolling his eyes, Sheen pushed a button on the back and let the action figure answer, while he went to the mirror to comb his hair.

"…_I still have that scar; the cut was so deep Vox didn't even know how to cure it entirely. Isn't that crazy?"_

The Ultra Lord grinned with his plastic smile at the phone. "Saying number ONE."

"_Yeah…and what about two month ago? I wasn't the only one who was put out then, eh?"_

"Saying number TWO!"

Sheen sighed to himself and ignored the bizarre conversation. Would Libby notice the wrinkled, button-less state of his tuxedo? She had clearly requested that he appeared properly dressed tonight. What if she got upset, slapped him with a fish across the face ('cause there really was no clearer statement than a fish-slap) and stormed off to cry/yell/complain to Cindy (who seemed to be pissed off anyways all thanks to his best friend) over the phone, who'd in return hunt him down to rid him of his rather private areas? The thought alone was enough to make his knees go week.

And his plans of three Sheen and Libby juniors would go south just the same!

"Don't give up yet…" he cheered himself weakly up. "Just ask yourself…what would Ultra Lord do?"

For a moment he pictured frantic Libby and enraged Cindy in a battle against his hero…

…_nuclear blasts against women's fury…the deadliest futuristic weapons against utmost femininity… _

…and gulped.

"Need-something-cold-right-NOW!" He stuttered, ran back into the bathroom and splashed some water against his face, trying to get those horrible imaginations off his mind.

Ahhh…yes…this was good. Cool…wet…calm…_harmless_….

…_and then the mobile in his pants' pocket __**rang**__._

Out of surprise he turned up the intensity of the water-tap. The sudden change literally caused the liquid to shoot out …and drench his upper-body.

"AW MAN! This so isn't fair!" Sheen cursed and took hastily the cell phone out. "WHAT is it NOW?" he cried indignantly.

"_Gee, don't get your knickers in a knot!"_ the current bane of his existence, Cindy Vortex herself, answered with a sneer. _"Shouldn't you be on your way to the riverside by now, anyways? Sheen Dorkula Estevez, I warned you not to mess this one up courtesy to your __**great**__ idiocy-" _ Sheen's eyes nearly bulged out.

Well, this was just a prime example of unfairness! He could hardly believe he was being confronted with such accusations – let alone by someone who caused him a very involuntary second bath!

So, in order to give her a taste of his great dissatisfaction, he started to snap back: "Yeah, I WOULD be, IF it wasn't for Carlito, Casanova for the elderly AND Jimmy, the eternal, crazed nag AND yo-"

But that proved to be a very, very bad way to start the conversation.

"_Oh, he __**called**__ you, didn't he?" _Cindy cried out."_ Figures he can't swallow his stupid pride for once and admit that __**I**__ am right! Rather goes whining about it to a laughing stock like YOU! And what'd he tell you, eh? You better…"_with every word she spoke, her voice rose higher and fiercer.

Sheen stared ghastly at the mobile. "Dear Ultra Lord, what…_what_ have I done?" His voice was suddenly barely above a whisper.

"_Every other person would have the decency to at least CONSIDER that they made a mistake, but NO, of course he CAN'T! Certified __**idiot**__ would suit him better! How pathetic, I bet that's the reason Carl panicked when I warned him that the loser would call him soon…cause he already did! Really. Of all the people, he feeds his self-esteem on two bird-brains like yours-"_

"Uhm…Cindy?" he probed carefully, while returning into his room, soaking the carpet. "As I oftentimes already had the pleasure to tell you, I really do appreciate the name-calling and insults against my person, but as of today my date with Lib-"

"_Yeah, don't ruin it, or I'll have your head tomorrow for lunch-but anyway, as I was saying, when did he EVER see an experiment run under ideal conditions? You don't need to be a 'certified' know-it-all_

_to know-"_

Sheen dragged himself frustrated through the room and flipped himself on his bed. At this rate (and volume of Cindy's speech) he'd get a severe headache soon. And Libby had strictly forbidden that he consumed sugar before the date…thus everything was hopeless. HOPELESS.

Stress and sugar was sweet, indeed. Stress without sugar-DOOM AND DESPAIR. His rules of life were simple, but truer than other people's principles.

It was a ludicrous situation in itself, really. In one corner of the room Jimmy was complaining to Ultra Lord (who gladly answered every now and then with a heartily 'saying number x'). In his very hand (well via mobile) Cindy was getting all worked up over exactly the same story. Turns out, coincidences weren't funny at all.

"This is getting us nowhere…" he muttered after a few minutes of (desperate) listening to both parties and sauntered over to his phone/action figure construction. With a last: "Sorry, Cindy, I just decided to jump of the roof!" he laid his cell phone next to his actual phone…and wondered how it would feel to actually fall from such a height.

When Jimmy and Cindy seemed to catch on that they were now rambling to each other (with a few 'Sayings number THIRTY's ' thrown in now and then) and started to insult each other directly, Sheen shook his head disbelievingly at the battle of phones.

"And everybody thinks **I'm** the weird one."

The thing that REALLY spoilt his mood, however, was the fact that the crazy pair **would** make up soon, as they always did…and the whole trouble would begin all over again. He did some quick calculations (for some reason he never seemed to get those right in school!) and came to the conclusion that the next 'explosion' would be due this Sunday, 11.23 a.m. Immediately, Sheen made a little cross in his calendar.

Turning around, to FINALLY get going, however, a particularly loud shriek (courtesy to the one and only Cynthia Vortex) startled him and, backing away, he tripped over Liversnap, tumbling out of his door just to crash into a nearby wall. On the verge of fainting, he then fell backwards, scooted down the stairs, head first, and, heavily bruised, made contact with two pots full of painting color- originally intended for use on the floor's walls.

Pain. Humiliation. And…lots of pain.

"Ow."

And when Sheen eventually (after many complex, terrifying and truly bizarre complications) arrived at the river side, forty-five minutes later, with a wet, ripped, color splattered tuxedo, bruised and holding a dripping picnic basket (for he had slipped on a puddle on the way), he had barely time to greet his incredulously staring sweetheart – for, quicker than anyone could blink, they found themselves stranded on the cold surface of the moon, surrounded by the townsfolk and all their friends - watching a furious Cindy Vortex chasing an ashamed genius across a crater, yelling repeatedly 'I told you so!'.

It was the first night in his life, that Sheen Estevez, eternal insomniac, drifted off into a long, deep sleep – taken down by complete and utter exhaustion.

His plan to land himself his beautiful super heroine…once again had failed.

* * *

"It… was a pretty weird night." Libby confirmed with a blink, after they'd recollected together what the boys had (more or less voluntarily) told them about Sheen's efforts to get ready for their date. To this very day, though, she still hadn't completely understood, why Sheen had frantically muttered something about her slapping him with a fish when they'd somehow made it back from the moon. Then again, she'd been busy enough to keep her best friend from killing Jimmy for getting her anywhere near that crazed robot brother of his (who'd really enjoyed finding them all at his mercy).

Boys.

"You know what?" She grabbed onto her glass of Purple Flurp after a small pause. "I've come to think that we'd be better off without guys. No stress, no rage and no time-space-continuum crisis."

Cindy chuckled humorlessly and clinked their glasses together.

"Libby…you're absolutely right."

And they made a vow to give up on everything remotely resembling a male right then, right there.

But when the blonde managed to steer her car home (without wrecking any vital parts nor sending Libby into a two weeks coma) she still shivered with rage at the thought of one very clueless and very thoughtless genius.

* * *

_._

_A/N: Okay, say it. Lamest filler ever. But perhaps a little entertaining, just a little, yes? I'm almost done with the teenage drama, don't worry. The story's about to start._

_Haha and please, if anyone's reading this, just give me an inkling. I'm not even asking for feedback, just a little 'I read it', so I know I'm not just spamming this site. :p_

_Next update will hopefully be sooner, if school allows it.  
_


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